THE  TRUE  STORY 


OF  THB 


Exodus   of   Israel 


TOGETHER   WITH   A   BRIEF   VIEW  OF 


THE  HISTORY  OF  MONUMENTAL  EGYPT 


COMPILED  FROM  THE  WORK  OF 


DR.   HENRY     BRUGSCH-BEY 


EDITED  WITH   AN    INTRODUCTION 
AND    NOTES 

By  FRANCIS  H.  UNDERWOOD 


BOSTON 
LEE   AND    SHEPARD    PUBLISHERS 

NEW  YORK   CHARLES  T.  DILLINGHAM 


COPYRIGHT, 

1880, 

Br   LEE   AND    SHEPAED. 

All  Rights  Reserved. 


Electrotyped  at  the  Bo&ton  Stereotype  Foundry, 
19  Spring  Lane. 


CONTENTS. 


»&• 

PAGE 

Introduction, 9 

CHAPTER  I. 
Origin  of  the  Ancient  Egyptians.— Their  Neighbors,  21 

CHAPTER  II. 

Division  of  the  Country.  —  Mental  Peculiarities  of 
THE  Egyptians, 28 

CHAPTER  HI. 
The  Chronology  of  the  Pharaonic  History,  ...  42 

CHAPTER  IV. 

Mena,  and  the  Early  Dynasties.— The  Pyramids  and 
Sphinx .47 

CHAPTER  V. 
Art  and  Architecture  in  the  Twelfth  Dynasty,  .    •   59 

CHAPTER  VI. 
Semites  and  the  Egyptians, .  64 

CHAPTER  VII. 

The  Time  of  Foreign  Dominion.  — Joseph  in  Egypt,   .   95 

5 


457R91 


6  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER   VIII. 
The  Eighteenth  Dynasty.  —  Thutmes  III.,    .    .    .    .  139 

CHAPTER  IX. 

AmENHOTEP  III.,  AND  l^UNATEN,  THE  HeRETIC,    .      .      .    153 

CHAPTER   X. 
The  Pharaoh  of  the  Oppression,  .    .    .    .    .    .    .168 

CHAPTER  XI. 
The  Pharaoh  of  the  Exodus,  and  a  Summary  of 
Succeeding  History, 183 

CHAPTER  XII. 

The  Exodus  and  the  Egyptian  Monuments.  — A  Me- 
moir BY  Henry  Brugsch-Bey,      .......  196 


-K>^ 


APPENDIX. 

The  Table  of  Abydus, 243 

Obelisks  of  Thutmes  III.  at  Heliopolis,     ....  248 

Notes, 253 

Index, 257 


INTRODUCTION. 


"  Egypt  under  the  Pharaohs,"  by  Dr.  Henry 
Brugsch-Bey,  is  prominent  among  the  ablest  works 
upon  the  history  and  antiquities  of  the  dead  mother 
of  arts.  The  author,  under  the  patronage  of  the 
Egyptian  government,  spent  thirty  years  in  explo- 
ration and  in  the  study  of  inscriptions,  mostly  in 
company  with  the  distinguished  French  savant^ 
Mons.  Mariette-Bey,  whose  numerous  discoveries 
have  been  fortunatelj^  complemented  by  the  pro- 
found knowledge  and  the  far-reaching  deductions 
of  his  associate. 

The  most  important  fact  established  by  their 
labors  is  the  verification  (in  the  main)  of  the  chron- 
ological tables  of  Manetho,  and  the  proof  of  the 
high  antiquity  of  the  kingdom.  This  antiquity, 
beside  which  the  origin  of  every  other  historic 
nation  is  modern,  is  made  clear  by  many  indepen- 
dent proofs,  sometimes  jarring  as  against  each  other, 
but  agreeing  in  general  tendenc3^  The  Turin 
papyrus,  an  enormous  list  of  pharaohs,  unfortunately 

9 


10,  ,     ;  <  Jiv:FnepucTiOK 

much  dilapidated  and  illegible  in  places;  the  Table 
of  Abydus,  a  smaller  list  of  kings ;  a  well-authenti- 
cated chart  of  genealogies  of  court  architects ;  the 
various  inscriptions  upon  temple  walls ;  the  portrait 
statues ;  and  the  cartouches  of  kings  (like  coats-of- 
arms)  sculptured  upon  contemporary  monuments,  — 
these  are  the  chief  sources  of  the  evidence  which 
fixes  the  age  of  Mena,  founder  of  the  monarchy, 
between  forty-four  and  fifty-seven  centuries  before 
the  Christian  era,  and  which  shows  a  succession  of 
pharaohs  down  to  the  time  of  Alexander  the  Great, 
(b.  c.  332.)  The  architectural  remains  in  Asia  and 
in  Central  America  may  be  older  than  the  pyramids, 
but  there  are  no  inscriptions,  and  the  date  of  Indian 
and  of  Aztec  temples  is  wholly  conjectural. 

The  antiquity  of  Egypt,  however,  is  not  its  only 
claim  upon  the  veneration  of  men :  literature,  the 
arts,  and  the  ideas  of  morality  and  religion,  so  far 
as  we  know,  had  their  birth  in  the  Nile  valley. 
The  alphabet,  if  it  was  constructed  in  Phoenicia, 
was  conceived  in  Egypt,  or  developed  from  Egyp- 
tian characters.  Language,  doubtless,  is  as  old  as 
man,  but  the  visible  symbols  of  speech  were  first 
formulated  from  the  hieroglyphic  figures. 

The  early  architecture  of  the  Greeks,  the  Doric, 
is  a  development  of  the  Egyptian.  Their  vases, 
ewers,   jewelry,   and  other  ornamental  works,  are 


INTR  OD  UCTIGN.  \  \ 

copied  from  the  household  luxury  of  the  pharaohs. 
The  peculiar  genius  of  Egypt,  however,  appears  to 
be  repulsive  to  gay  and  lively  people  like  the 
French,  and  the  critics  of  Paris  do  scant  justice  to 
the  colossal  works  of  the  elder  pharaohs.  Edmund 
About  says  :  "  The  contemporaries  of  Sesostris  were 
miraculous  constructors  rather  than  great  architects, 
skilful  and  expeditious  workmen  rather  than  re- 
markable sculptors.  From  the  time  of  Moses  to 
the  epoch  of  the  Ptolemies,  all  the  fine  arts  of  the 
country,  such  as  architecture,  sculpture,  and  paint- 
ing, have  struck  us  by  their  solidity  and  harshness, 
by  the  spirit  of  tradition  pushed  to  the  extreme, 
rather  than  by  their  originality  of  genius.  It  is 
necessary  to  go  back  to  the  first  dynasties  to  meet 
pure  and  ingenious  talent,  that  hieratic  regulations 
were  soon  to  paralyze.  A  few  specimens,  well  exe- 
cuted, are  found  here  and  there  ;  but  one  could 
search  the  whole  of  Egypt  from  one  end  to  the 
other,  without  finding  a  work  to  be  compared  to 
the  Temple  of  Theseus,  or  to  the  Venus  of  Milo. 
The  enormous  is  not  the  great ;  knowledge  and 
facility  bear  no  relation  to  genius." 

There  is  a  singular  mixture  of  truth  and  error  in 
this  shrewd  paragraph.  '  Sesostris,'  or  Ramses  the 
Great,  was  not  long  before  Moses,  but  the  art  of 
Egypt   culminated   in   the  reign  of  Thutmes  III., 


12  INTRODUCTION. 

in  the  dynasty  preceding.  The  art  of  the  Greeks 
did  not  reach  its  perfection  until  long  after  the 
decadence  of  Egypt.  In  the  time  of  the  Ptolemies 
Egypt  was  a  Greek  province.  The  great  works  of 
Eg3'pt,  as  About  says,  were  not  the  latest ;  neither 
were  they  the  earliest.  The  same  is  true  of  Greek, 
and  of  Roman  art.  In  no  country  has  the  growth 
of  art  been  continuous  and  uninterrupted.  In 
Egypt,  as  in  Greece,  the  period  of  greatness  was 
comparatively  ancient.  The  most  truthful  state- 
ment in  the  passage  quoted  is  that  which  mentions 
the  influence  of  the  priests  in  preventing  the  devel- 
opment of  art  in  sculpture  and  painting,  by  requiring 
the  use  of  certain  formal  and  conventional  outlines. 
After  all,  the  appreciation  of  one  or  another  kind  of 
art  is  greatly  owing  to  inherited  traits,  and  to  the 
distinctive  quality  of  race.  The  exquisite  perfec- 
tion of  a  Greek  temple  will  most  delight  the 
beauty-loving  Latin  races  ;  the  monumental  gran- 
deur of  Karnac  will  most  strongly  affect  the  Ger- 
mans, the  English,  and  other  Gothic  peoples.  It  is 
the  sombre  magnificence  of  a  Gothic  minster  against 
the  tawdry  splendors  of  the  opera  house  ;  it  is  the 
glory  of  Handel's  Messiah^  or  of  Beethoven's  Fifth 
Symphony^  against  the  elegance  of  La  Dame  Blanche^ 
or  the  gayety  of  La  Belle  Helena^  of  Offenbach. 
Surely  M.  About  can  have  his  choice. 


INTRODUCTION.  13 

The  influence  of  Egyptian,  ideas  upon  the  race 
of  Israel  has  a  profound  interest  for  the  whole 
Christian  world.  The  time  of  Abraham  is  properly- 
considered  to  have  been  about  1900  B.  c*  —  an 
epoch  that,  in  the  minds  of  unreflecting  persons,  is 
almost  at  the  beginning  of  all  things.  Yet  the 
Great  Pyramid,  built  by  the  first  pharaoh  of  the 
fourth  dynasty,  had  been  standing  from  twelve  hun- 
dred to  two  thousand  years  before  the  '  Father  of 
the  Faithful '  was  born.  Egypt  had  a  school  of 
architecture  and  sculpture,  a  recorded  literature,  re- 
ligious ceremonies,  mathematics,  astronomy,  music, 
agriculture,  scientific  irrigation,  the  arts  of  war, 
ships,  commerce,  workers  in  gold,  ivory,  gems,  and 
glass,  the  appliances  of  luxury,  and  the  insignia 
of  pride,  ages  before  the  race  of  Hebrews  had  been 
evolved  from  the  fierce  Semitic  tribes  of  the  desert. 

The  Five  Books  of  Moses,  the  beautiful  poem  of 
Job,  and  the  other  sacred  writings  of  the  Jews, 
were  then  so  far  in  the  future !  Ages  before  the 
giving  of  the  law  on  Mount  Sinai,  the  *  Book  of  the 
Dead,'  with  its  high  moral  precepts,  was  in  the 
possession  of  every  educated  Egyptian ;  portions  of 

*  The  epoch  of  Abraham  may  be  fixed  by  that  of  Joseph,  who 
went  to  Egypt  b.  c.  1730.  It  is  possible  that  from  Joseph  back  to 
Abraham  there  might  have  been  two  hundred  and  ten  years,  allow- 
ing seventy  years  for  each  intervening  life. 


14  INTRODUCTION. 

it,  transcribed  upon  papyrns  leaves,  were  even  then, 
in  the  time  of  Abraham,  securely  folded  in  the 
funeral  cerements  of  kings  and  priests,  laid  in  their 
•"  everlasting  habitations." 

The  prayers  of  King  Khunaten  and  of  his  queen, 
and  those  of  Amenhotep  11. ,  all  dating  long  before 
any  biblical  writing,  may  be  found  translated  in  this 
work  of  Dr.  Brugsch ;  and  it  is  but  simple  truth 
to  say,  that,  in  beauty  of  expression  and  grandeur  of 
thought,  and  in  that  piety  which  is  the  reaching 
out  of  the  soul  after  God,  no  prayers  of  any  people, 
under  any  form  of  religion,  can  be  placed  before 
them.  One  or  two  specimens  will  be  found  in  the 
following  pages. 

We  read  with  a  vague  awe  when  the  sacred 
writer  mentions  "The  God  of  Abraham,  and  of 
Isaac,  and  of  Jacob ;  "  but  who  was  the  God  of 
Khunaten,  whose  cry  to  the  deity  he  could  not 
name  comes  to  us  from  the  dim  twilight  of  time  ? 

Other  literary  fragments,  translated  by  Dr. 
Brugsch,  attest  the  acute  observation,  the  good 
sense,  and  the  moral  elevation  of  writers  who  pre- 
ceded by  centuries  all  others  of  every  other  race. 

In  this  essay  we  leave  out  of  view  the  civilization 
of  Assyria  and  of  other  nations  whose  art  and  let- 
ters, so  far  as  we  know,  have  not  greatly  affected 
our  own. 


INTRODUCTION.  15 

The  people  of  modern  Europe  are  heirs  to  the 
Romans  in  literature  and  the  arts.  The  more 
northern  of  the  nations  inherit,  also,  the  laws, 
language,  and  genius  of  the  Goths.  The  Romans, 
with  their  allies  and  congeners,  drew  their  ideas 
from  the  Greeks.  The  Greeks  had  their  original 
learning  and  art  from  Egypt,  though  partly  through 
the  medium  of  Phoenicia.  Greek  historians  like 
Herodotus,  and  philosophers  like  Pythagoras,  went 
to  Egypt  to  study,  just  as,  long  after,  Roman  schol- 
ars went  to  Athens.  The  Jews  went  out  from 
Egypt  with  a  modified  Semitic  speech,  and  a  pure 
Semitic  blood  ;  but  they  carried  with  them  in  the 
person  of  their  great  leader  "  all  the  wisdom  of  the 
Egyptians."  This  is  shown  by  their  architecture, 
their  religious  customs  and  vestments,  and  their 
persistent  kindred  traditions.  The  nations  we  have 
mentioned  are  those  that  developed  and  taught  the 
rude  primitive  races  that  peopled  England,  and 
whose  descendants  in  all  quarters  of  the  globe  are 
tending  to  supreme  power  in  human  affairs. 

We  see  there  is  sufficient  reason  for  the  absorbing 
interest  felt  by  all  thoughtful  men  in  the  annals  of 
Egypt.  Wonderful  developments  have  taken  place 
since  the  greatest  of  the  pharaohs  wore  the  double 
crown,  but  the  germ  of  all  future  civilizations  was 
in    that   powerful   people.     The   thinking  and  the 


16  INTRODUCTION. 

living  of  all  mankind  have  been  moulded  by  the 
influences  of  Moses  and  Jesus ;  and  both  were  of 
the  race  whose  early  lessons  were  received  with 
stripes  from  Egyptian  masters.  The  hieratic  sym- 
bols are  uncouth  to  modern  eyes,  but  they  con- 
tained the  possibilities  of  Genesis  and  the  Iliad,  of 
the  Psalms,  the  jEneid,  and  the  Inferno,  —  of  Pro- 
metheus, Hamlet,  and  Paradise  Lost. 

"  Earth  proudly  wears  the  Parthenon 
As  the  best  gem  upon  her  zone ;  " 

but  in  the  thought  that  planned  the  Hall  of  Col- 
umns, or  sculptured  the  rock  temple  of  Amon,  was 
involved  the  conception  of  all  Athenian  and  all 
Roman  fanes. 

We  hail,  therefore,  the  continued  results  of  ex- 
plorations in  this  wonderful  land,  the  remote  but 
undoubted  source  of  letters  and  morals,  sciences 
and  arts.  Every  newly-found  inscription  helps  to 
confirm  or  correct  a  date  or  a  tradition,  and  to 
make  certain  the  long  and  dim  tract  of  its  history. 

The  difficulties  that  have  surrounded  the  delvers 
in  buried  cities  can  scarcely  be  over-estimated. 
Suppose  that,  by  some  convulsion  of  nature,  or  by 
some  mischance  in  war,  the  venerable  abbey  of 
Westminster  with  its  historic  monuments  had  been 
levelled    to    the    ground,   and    the    stones   lay    in 


INTRODUCTION.  17 

heaps  in  the  cloisters,  or  about  Whitehall,  or  along 
the  Thames  embankment ;  —  suppose,  after  twenty 
centuries  had  covered  these  stones  with  their  accu- 
mulations, and  after  spoliators  had  built  some  of 
them  into  modern  edifices,  that  a  new  Mariette  or 
Brugsch  should  excavate  and  measure  and  decipher, 
and  should  attempt  to  reconstruct  the  towers,  nave, 
transepts,  chapels,  choir,  and  tombs ;  —  think  of  the 
confusion  of  arches  and  rosaces,  pinnacles  and  col- 
umns, of  headless  statues  and  overturned  pedestals, 
of  half-effaced  inscriptions  and  fragmentary  dates  ! 
Conceive  what  it  would  be  to  put  in  order  the 
various  parts  of  the  building,  and  to  identify  its 
centuries  of  memorials  !  Such,  and  so  broken  and 
dispersed,  are  the  remains  of  the  fabric  of  the 
Egyptian  state.  So,  through  the  Nile  valley,  and 
around  Thebes  and  Memphis,  Zoan-Tanis  and 
Pitom,  Thinis,  Philse,  Bubastis  and  Abydus,  lie  the 
almost  irrecoverable  fragments  of  monumental 
Egypt,  too  many  of  them  mere  disjointed  stones. 
Upon  such  materials  the  labors  of  Egyptologists 
have  been  patiently  spent.  The  gaps  in  chronology 
are  still  enormous  and  deplorable,  due  to  the  numer- 
ous wars  which,  age  after  age,  desolated  the  coun- 
try and  destroyed  its  statues  and  public  buildings  ; 
but  the  results  are  still  grand,  and  fully  repay  the 
toil  and  money  spent  in  the  search. 
2 


18  INTR  OD  UCTION. 

Much  remains  to  be  done  ;  and  it  is  to  be  hoped 
that  future  viceroys  may  be  as  intelligent  and  lib- 
eral as  Ismail  Pacha,  to  whom  so  much  honor  is 
due,  and  that  future  archaeologists  may  be  as  untir- 
ing, as  keen  and  as  just,  as  the  author  whose  work 
is  under  consideration. 

This  volume  contains  so  much  of  Dr.  Brugsch's 
work  as  relates  to  the  settlement  of  the  family  of 
Jacob,  and  to  their  exodus  as  a  people  under  Moses. 
To  enable  the  reader  to  understand  the  historic 
connection,  the  editor  has  made  a  brief  summary 
of  leading  events,  and  an  account  of  the  most  emi- 
nent of  the  pharaohs.  Some  account  is  given  of 
the  early  races,  also  of  the  royal  residences,  and 
of  the  Hyksos,  under  the  last  of  whom  Joseph  was 
the  favorite  minister.  As  far  as  is  consistent  with 
fluency  in  narration,  all  these  topics  are  presented 
in  the  author's  own  words. 

The  original  work  is  large  and  expensive,  and  its 
chief  interest  to  general  readers,  and  especially  to 
biblical  students,  lies  in  the  contact  of  the  Jewish 
with  the  Egyptian  race.  Many  people  might  be 
indifferent  as  to  the  history  of  Ramses  the  Great, 
unless  they  knew  that  it  was  his  daughter,  the 
Princess  Meri,  who  found  the  infant  Moses.  Aahmes 
would  be  a  meaningless  name,  unless  we  knew  that 
he  overthrew  and  seated  himself  on  the  throne  of 


INTRODUCTION.  19 

the  pharaoh  who  had  been  the  patron  of  Joseph. 
Mineptah  would  be  passed  by,  unless  we  were  told 
that  he  was  the  pharaoh  of  the  Exodus,  upon  whom 
the  judgments  of  heaven  fell,  and  who  was  drowned 
with  his  host  in  pursuing  his  slaves. 

It  will  be  interesting,  even  to  the  firmest  believer 
in  the  literal  inspiration  of  the  Books  of  Moses,  to 
know  that,  although  Egyptian  history  is  silent  with 
regard  to  the  Hebrews  and  their  miraculous  escape 
from  bondage,  the  Scripture  narrative,  when  rightly 
interpreted,  is  found,  to  accord  with  known  events 
and  dates,  and  with  the  permanent  facts  of  geog- 
raphy. Translators  and  commentators  have  dark- 
ened and  perplexed  the  sacred  record  ;  and  clerical 
chronologists  have  made  havoc  with  arithmetic  and 
with  science  and  history  in  fixing  the  unknowable 
anno  mundi  as  a  point  of  reckoning ;  but  in  the 
new  light  shed  upon  the  story  of  the  Exodus  by 
Dr.  Brugsch  it  comes  out  with  wonderful  vivid- 
ness. 

The  long  sojourn  of  the  Israelites  in  Egypt  was 
productive  of  great  and  lasting  results.  Had  they 
remained  outside  the  barrier  of  Shur  among  the 
Shasu,  their  descendants  to-day  would  have  been 
like  the  Bedouins,  dwellers  in  the  black  tents  of  the 
desert.  Centuries  of  oppression  consolidated  them, 
and  made  them  a  hardy  and  warlike  people.     They 


20  INTRODUCTION. 

learned  the  sciences  and  arts  of  their  oppressors; 
they  built  upon  their  customs  and  laws.  They 
came  to  have  a  proper  pride  in  an  unmixed  lineage  ; 
and  they  carried  into  Syria  the  certainty  of  a  one 
God,  —  a  God  long  before  dreamed  of  by  Egyptian 
priests  and  kings.  Other  influences  have  doubtless 
aided,  but  it  was  chiefly  the  primal  impulse  from 
Egypt  that  made  them  a  leading  race  ;  and  that  it 
has  not  yet  spent  its  force  is  shown  by  their  de- 
served prominence  in  literature,  music,  finance,  and 
statesmanship.  Familiar  as  the  sacred  story  ought 
to  be,  it  is  thought  best  to  copy  the  passages  of 
scripture  that  refer  to  Joseph  and  to  Moses,  that 
they  may  be  considered  with  Dr.  Brugsch's  irre- 
sistible demonstration. 

Feancis  H.  Underwood. 
Boston,  Feb.  2,  1880. 


THE  TRUE  STORY 

OF 

THE   EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL. 

CHAPTER  I. 

OEIGIN  OF  THE  ANCIENT   EGYPTIANS.  —  THEIR 
NEIGHBOES. 

Although,  in  so  long  a  space  of  time  as  sixty- 
centuries,  events  and  revolutions  of  great  historical 
importance  must  of  necessity  have  completely  al- 
tered the  political  state  of  Egypt^  yet,  notwith- 
standing all,  the  old  Egyptian  race  has  undergone 
but  little  change  ;  for  it  still  preserves  to  this  day 
those  distinctive  features  of  physiognomy,  and  those 
peculiarities  of  manners  and  customs,  which  have 
been  handed  down  to  us,  by  the  united  testimony 
of  the  monuments  and  the  accounts  of  the  ancient 
classical  writers,  as  the  hereditary  characteristics  of 
this  people. 

The  forefathers  of  the  Egyptians  cannot  be  reck- 
oned among  the  African  races,  properly  so  called. 
The  form  of  the  skull  —  so  at  least  the  elder  school 

(21) 


22  THE   TRUE  STORY  OF 

teaches  —  as  well  as  the  proportions  of  the  several 
parts  of  the  body,  as  these  have  been  determined 
from  examining  a  great  number  of  mummies,  are 
held  to  indicate  a  connection  with  the  Caucasian 
family  of  mankind.  The  Egyptians,  together  with 
some  other  nations,  form,  as  it  would  seem,  a  third 
branch  of  that  race,  namely,  the  family  called  Cush- 
ite,  which  is  distinguished  by  special  characters  from 
the  Pelasgian  and  the  Semitic  families.  Whatever 
relations  of  kindred  may  be  found  always  to  exist 
between  these  great  races  of  mankind,  thus  much 
may  be  regarded  as  certain,  that  the  cradle  of  the 
Egyptian  people  must  be  sought  in  the  interior  of 
the  Asiatic  quarter  of  the  world.  In  the  earliest 
ages  of  humanity,,  far  beyond  all  historical  remem- 
brance, the  Egyptians,  for  reasons  unknown  to  us, 
left  the  soil  of  their  primeval  home,  took  their  way 
towards  the  setting  sun,  and  finally  crossed  that 
bridge  of  nations,  the  Isthmus  of  Suez,  to  find  a 
new  fatherland  on  the  favored  banks  of  the  holy 
Nile. 

Comparative  philology,  in  its  turn,  gives  powerful 
support  to  this  hypothesis.  The  Egyptian  language 
—  which  has  been  preserved  on  the  monuments  of 
the  oldest  time,  as  well  as  in  the  late-Christian  manu- 
scripts of  the  Copts,  the  successors  of  the  people  of 
the  pharaohs  —  shows  in   no  way  any  trace   of  a 


THE  EXODUS  OF  ISRAEL.  23 

derivation  and  descent  from  the  African  families  of 
speech.  On  the  contrary,  the  primitive  roots  and 
the  essential  elements  of  the  Egyptian  grammar 
point  to  such  an  intimate  connection  with  the  Indo- 
Germanic  and  Semitic  languages,  that  it  is  almost 
impossible  to  mistake  the  close  relations  which 
formerly  prevailed  between  the  Egyptians  and  the 
races  called  Indo-Germanic  and  Semitic. 

We  will  not  pass  over  in  silence  a  Greek  account, 
remarkable  because  of  its  origin,  according  to  which 
the  primitive  abode  of  the  Egyptian  people  is  to 
be  sought  in  Ethiopia.  According  to  an  opinion 
strongly  advocated  by  ancient  writers,  and  even 
subscribed  to  by  some  modern  historians  little 
conversant  with  the  facts  of  the  case,  the  honor 
of  first  founding  Egyptian  civilization  should  be 
awarded  to  a  society  of  priests  from  the  city  of 
Meroe.  Descending  the  course  of  the  Nile  —  so 
runs  the  story  —  they  are  supposed  to  have  settled 
on  the  territory  of  the  later  city  of  Th'ebes,  and 
there  to  have  founded  the  first  state  with  a  theo- 
cratic form  of  government.  Although,  on  the 
ground  of  the  ancient  tradition,  this  view  has  been 
frequently  repeated  in  the  historical  works  of  sub- 
sequent times,  it  is  nevertheless  stamped  with  the 
mark  of  error,  as  it  dispenses  with  any  actual  proof. 
It  is  not  to  the  Ethiopian  priests  that  the  Egyptian 


24  THE   TRUE  STORY  OF 

empire  owes  its  origin,  its  form  of  government,  and 
the  characteristic  stages  of  its  iiigh  civilization  ;  but 
much  rather  was  it  the  Egyptians  that  first  ascended 
the  river,  to  found  in  Ethiopia  temples,  cities,  and 
fortified  places,  and  to  diffuse  the  blessings  of  a  civ- 
ilized state  among  the  rude  dark-colored  population. 
Whichever  of  the  Greek  historians  concocted  the 
marvellous  fiction  of  the  first  Ethiopic  settlement 
in  Egypt  was  led  into  the  mistake  by  a  confusion 
with  the  influence  which  Ethiopia  exercised  on  the 
fortunes  of  Egypt  during  a  comparatively  late  pe- 
riod, and  by  carrying  this  back,  without  further 
consideration,  into  the  prehistoric  age. 

Supposing,  for  a  moment,  that  Egypt  had  owed 
her  civil  and  social  development  to  Ethiopia,  noth- 
ing should  be  more  probable  than  the  presumption 
of  our  finding  monuments  of  the  highest  antiquity 
in  that  primitive  home  of  the  Egyptians,  while  in 
going  down  the  river  we  ought  to  light  only  upon 
monuments  of  a  later  age.  Strange  to  say,  the 
whole  number  of  the  buildings  in  stone,  as  yet 
known  and  examined,  which  were  erected  on  both 
sides  of  the  river  at  the  bidding  of  the  Egyptian 
and  Ethiopian  kings,  furnish  the  incontrcfvertible 
proof,  that  the  long  series  of  temples,  cities,  sepul- 
chres, and  monuments  in  general,  exhibit  a  distinct 
chronological   order,  of  which  the  oldest  starting- 


TEE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  25 

point  is  found  in  the  Pyramids,  at  the  apex  of  the 
Delta,  south  of  the  bifurcation  of  the  great  river. 
As,  in  proceeding  southwards,  we  approach  nearer 
and  nearer  to  the  rapids  and  cataracts  of  the  Upper 
Nile,  right  into  the  heart  of  the  later  Ethiopian 
kingdom,  the  more  does  the  stamp  of  antiquity  van- 
ish from  the  whole  body  of  extant  monuments ;  the 
more  evident  is  the  decline  of  art,  of  taste,  and  of 
beauty.  In  short,  the  Ethiopian  style  of  art  —  so 
far  as  the  monumcxits  still  preserved  allow  us  to 
form  a  judgment  —  is  destitute  of  all  independent 
character.  The  first  view  of  the  Ethiopian  monu- 
ments at  once  carries  the  conviction,  that  we  can 
recognize  no  special  quality  beyond  the  rudest  con- 
ception and  the  most  imperfect  execution  of  a  stj'le 
of  art  originally  Egyptian.  The  most  clumsy  imita- 
tion of  Egyptian  attainments  in  all  that  relates  to 
science  and  the  arts,  appears  as  the  acme  of  the 
intellectual  progress  and  the  artistic  development 
of  Ethiopia. 

According  to  the  accounts  of  the  Greek  and  Ro- 
man writers  who  had  occasion  to  visit  Egypt  and  to 
have  close  intercourse  with  the  people  of  the  coun- 
try, the  Egyptians  themselves  held  the  belief,  that 
they  were  the  original  inhabitants  of  the  land.  Tlie 
fertile  valley  of  the  Nile,  according  to  their  opinion, 
formed  the  heart  and  centre  of  the  whole  world. 


26  THE   TRUE  STORY  OF 

To  the  west  of  it  dwelt  the  groups  of  tribes  which 
bore  the  general  name  of  Ribu,  or  Libu,  the  ances- 
tors of  those  Libyans  who  are  so  often  mentioned  in 
the  historical  works  and  geographical  descriptions 
of  the  ancients.  Inhabiting  the  north  coasts  of 
Africa,  they  extended  their  abodes  eastward  as  far 
as  the  districts  along  the  Canopic  branch  of  the 
Nile,  now  called  that  of  Rosetta,  or  Rashid.  From 
the  evidence  of  the  monuments,  they  belonged  to 
a  light-colored  race,  with  blue  eyes  and  blond  or 
red  hair.  According  to  the  very  remarkable  re- 
searches of  the  French  general  Faidherbe,  they  may 
have  been  the  earliest  representatives  of  that  race 
(perhaps  of  Celts?)  who  migrated  from  the  north 
of  Europe  to  Africa,  making  their  way  through  the 
three  Mediterranean  peninsulas,  and  gradually  tak- 
ing possession  of  the  Libyan  coasts. 

Turning  our  eyes  to  the  east,  across  the  narrow 
Isthmus  of  Suez,  we  meet  on  the  ancient  soil  the 
people  of  that  great  nation,  which  the  Egyptians 
designated  by  the  name  of  Amu.  Whether  we  pre- 
fer to  explain  this  name  by  the  help  of  the  Semitic 
languages,  in  which  it  has  the  general  significance 
of  '  people,'  or  whether  we  resort  to  the  Egyptian 
vocabulary,  in  which  ame  (more  usually  amen)  has 
the  meaning  of  'herdsman,' — in  either  case,  this 
one  thing  is  certain,  that  the  Egyptians  of  the  pha- 


THE  EXODUS  OF  ISRAEL.  2T 

raonic  age  used  the  term  in  a  some  what  contemptu- 
ous sense.  These  Amu  were  the  Pagans,  the  Kaf- 
firs, or  '  infidels '  of  their  time.  In  the  colored 
representations  they  are  distinguished  chiefly  by 
their  yellow  or  yellowish-brown  complexion,  while 
their  dress  has  sometimes  a  great  simplicity,  but 
sometimes  shows  a  taste  for  splendor  and  richness 
in  the  choiceness  of  the  cut  and  the  colored  designs 
woven  into  the  fabric.  In  these  Amu  scientific  re- 
search has  long  since  perceived  the  representatives 
of  the  great  Semitic  family  of  nations,  though,  in 
our  own  opinion,  the  same  name  includes  also  many 
peoples  and  families,  who  appear  to  have  but  a 
slight  relationship  with  the  pure  Semitic  race. 

The  most  remarkable  nations  among  the  Amu, 
who  appear  in  the  course  of  Egj'ptian  history  as 
commanding  respect  by  their  character  and  their 
deeds,  are  the  Kheta,  the  Khar  (or  Khal),  and  the 
Ruten  (or  Luten).  But  moreover  it  is  to  be  espe- 
cially remarked,  as  a  fact  established  beyond  dis- 
pute, that  even  in  the  most  glorious  times  of  the 
Egyptian  monarchy  the  Amu  were  settled  as  perma- 
nent inhabitants  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  present 
lake  Menzaleh.  A  great  number  of  towns  and  vil- 
lages, canals  and  pools,  in  that  region,  formerly  bore 
names  unmistakably  Semitic. 


28  THE  TRUE  STORY  OF 


CHAPTER   11. 

DIVISION  OF  THE  COUNTRY.  —  MENTAL   PECULIAR- 
ITIES  OF   THE  EGYPTIANS. 

Egypt  is  designated  in  the  old  inscriptions,  as 
well  as  in  the  books  of  the  later  Christian  Egyp- 
tians, by  a  word  which  signifies  *  the  black  land,' 
and  which  is  read  in  the  Egyptian  language  Kern,  or 
Kami.  The  ancients  had  early  remarked  that  the 
cultivable  land  of  Egypt  was  distinguished  by  its 
dark  and  almost  black  color,  and  certainly  this 
peculiar  color  of  their  soil  suggested  to  the  old 
Egyptians  the  name  of  the  black  land.  This  name 
and  its  derivation  receive  a  further  corroboration 
from  the  fact,  that  the  neighboring  region  of  the 
Arabian  desert  bore  the  name  of  Tesher,  or  '  the 
red  land,'  in  contradistinction  to  the  black  land 
(the  A'in  of  the  monuments,  uEan  in  Pliny,  an  ap- 
pellation of  the  nome  afterwards  called  the  Heroo- 
politan).  On  countless  occasions  the  king  is  men- 
tioned in  the  inscriptions  as  '  the  lord  of  the  black 
country  and  of  the  red  country,'  in  order  to  show 
that  his  rule  extended  over  cultivated  and  unculti- 


THE  EXODUS  OF  ISRAEL.  29 

vated  Egypt  in  the  wider  sense  of  the  word.  We 
must  take  this  opportunity  of  stating  that  the 
Egyptians  designated  themselves  simply  as  the 
people  of  the  black  land,  and  that  the  inscriptions, 
so  far.  as  we  know,  have  handed  down  to  us  no 
other  appellation  as  the  distinctive  name  of  the 
Egyptian  people. 

Ancient  Egypt,  most  commonly  mentioned  in 
general  as  '  the  double  land,'  consisted  of  two 
great  divisions,  which,  after  their  situation,  were 
called  in  contrast  with  each  other  the  land  of  the 
South  and  the  land  of  the  North,  as  is  attested  by 
the  inscriptions.  The  first  corresponds  to  that  part 
of  Egypt  which,  following  the  Greek  name,  we  now 
know  as  Upper  Egypt,  and  which  the  Arabs  of  the 
present  day  call  by  the  appellation  of  Said.  The 
land  of  Upper  Egypt  began  on  the  south  at  the 
ivory-island-city  of  Elephantine,  which  lay  opposite 
to  Syene  (the  modern  trading-town  of  Assouan),  on 
the  right  bank  of  the  river ;  and  its  northern  boun- 
dary reached  to  the  neighborhood  of  the  Memphian 
district  on  the  left  bank  of  the  holy  river.  North- 
ern Egypt  comprehended  the  remaining  part  of  the 
land,  called  the  Low  country,  the  land  of  Behereh 
of  the  Arabs,  the  Delta  of  the  Greek  writers. 
This  division,  which  exists  just  as  much  in  our 
own  day  as  it  did   in  the  most  ancient  times,  is 


30  THE  TRUE  STORY  OF 

neither  accidental  nor  arbitrary ;  for  it  is  founded 
not  only  on  a  local  difference  in  the  respective  dia- 
lects of  the  inhabitants,  but  on  the  marked  distinc- 
tion of  habits,-manners,  and  customs,  which  divides 
the  Egyptians  in  the  north  and  the  south  from 
one  another.  Already  in  the  thirteenth  century 
before  our  era,  this  difference  of  speech  is  proved- 
by  documentary  evidence. 

The  land  of  Egypt  resembles  a  small  narrow  gir- 
dle, divided  in  the  midst  by  a  stream  of  water,  and 
hemmed  in  on  both  sides  by  long  chains  of  moun- 
tains. On  the  right  side  of  the  stream,  to  the  east, 
the  chain  of  hills  called  Arabian  accompany  the 
river  for  its  whole  length ;  on  the  opposite,  the 
western  side,  the  low  hills  of  the  Libyan  desert 
extend  in  the  same  direction  with  the  river  from 
south  to  north,  up  to  the  shore  of  the  Mediterra- 
nean Sea.  The  river  itself  was  designated  by  the 
Greeks  and  Romans  by  the  name  of  Neilos,  or 
Nilus.  Although  this  word  is  still  retained  in  the 
Arabic  language  as  Nil,  with  the  special  meaning 
of  '  inundation,'  yet  its  origin  is  not  to  be  sought 
in  the  old  Egyptian  language ;  but,  as  has  been 
lately  suggested  with  great  probability,  it  is  to  be 
derived  from  the  Semitic  word  Nahar,  or  Nahal, 
which  has  the  general  signification  of  'river.' 
From  its  bifurcation  south  of   the  ancient  city  of 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  31 

Memphis,  the  river  divided  itself  into  three  great 
arms,  which  watered  the  Lower  Egyptian  flat  lands 
which  spread  out  in  the  shape  of  the  Greek  letter 
jd  (Delta),  and  with  four  smaller  arms  formed  the 
seven  famous  months  of  the  Nile. 

The  Egyptian  districts,  called  by  the  Greeks 
Nomes  (iVo/uoi),  which  in  the  upper  land  lay  on  both 
sides  of  the  river,  comprehended  in  the  inner  part 
of  the  Delta  larger  circuits,  which  were  surrounded 
like  islands  by  the  arms  of  the  Nile  and  their  canals. 
Beyond  these  island  nomes  other  districts  extended 
on  the  Arabian  and  Libyan  sides  of  the  Lower 
Egyptian  region  of  the  stream.  They  are  called  in 
the  lists  the  Western  and  Eastern  nomes.  This 
special  division  of  the  upper  and  lower  countries 
into  the  districts  called  Nomes  is  of  the  highest 
antiquity,  since  we  already  find  on  the  monuments 
of  the  fourth  dynasty  some  nomes  mentioned  by 
their  names,  as  well  as  some  towns  with  the  nomes 
to  which  they  belonged.  Upper  Egypt  contained 
twenty-two  nomes,  Lower  Egypt  twenty,  so  that 
there  was  a  total  for  all  Egypt  of  forty-two  nomes. 

Each  district  had  its  own  capital,  which  was  at  the 
same  time  the  seat  of  the  captain  for  the  time  being, 
whose  office  and  dignity  passed  by  inheritance,  ac- 
cording to  the  old  Egyptian  laws,  from  the  father 
to  the  eldest  grandson  on  the  mother's  side.     The 


32  THE  TRUE  STORY  OF 

capital  formed  likewise  the  central  point  of  the  par- 
ticular divine  worship  of  the  district  which  belonged 
to  it.  The  sacred  lists  of  the  nomes  have  handed 
down  to  us  the  names  of  the  temple  of  the  chief  deity, 
of  the  priests  and  priestesses,  of  the  holy  trees,  and 
also  the  names  of  the  town-harbor  of  the  holy  canal, 
the  cultivated  land  and  the  land  which  was^  only 
fruitful  ^during  the  inundation,  and  much  other  in- 
formiation,  in  such  completeness  that  we  are  in  a 
position,  from  the  indications  contained  in  these  lists, 
to  form  the  most  exact  picture  of  each  Egyptian 
nome  in  all  its  details,  almost  without  any  gaps. 

There  are  three  districts,  above  all  others,  which  in 
the  conrse  of  Egyptian  history  maintained  the  bril- 
liant reputation  of  being  the  seats  of  government  for 
the  land :  in  Lower  Egypt  the  nomes  of  Memphis 
and  Heliopolis  (On),  and  in  Uxjper  Egypt  that  of 
Thebes. 

The  old  inhabitants  of  Egypt,  like  the^ir  descend- 
ants of  to-day  who  inhabit  the  '  black  country,'  ob- 
tained nourishment  and  increase  from  their  favored 
soil.  The  wealth  and  prosperity  of  the  country  and 
its  inhabitants  were  founded  on  agriculture  and  the 
breeding  of  cattle.  Tillage,  favored  by  the  prover- 
bial fertility  of  the  soil,  had  its  fixed  seasons  regu- 
lated by  the  annual  inundations.  The  special  care 
already  bestowed  in  the  remotest  antiquity  on  that 


THE  EXODUS  OF  ISRAEL.  33 

important  part  of  agricultural  industry,  the  breeding 
and  tending  of  cattle,  is  set  in  the  clearest  light  by. 
the  evidence  of  the  monuments.  The  walls  of  the 
sepulchral  chapels  are  covered  with  thousands  of 
bas-reliefs  and  their  explanatory  inscriptions,  which 
preserve  for  us  the  most  abundant  disclosures  re- 
specting the  labors  of  the  field  and  the  rearing  of 
cattle,  as  practised  by  the  old  Egyptians.  In  them, 
also,  navigation  plays  an  important  part,  as  the  sole 
means  of  transport  for  long  distances.  In  ancient 
times,  as  in  our  own  day,  commerce  and  travelling 
were  carried  on  upon  the  Nile  and  its  canals.  On 
the  chief  festivals  of  the  Egyptian  year  the  pharaohs 
themselves  did  not  disdain  to  sail  along  the  sacred 
river  in  the  gorgeous  royal  ship,  in  order  to  perform 
mystic  rites  in  special  honor  of  agriculture.  The 
priests  regarded  the  plough  as  a  most  sacred  imple- 
ment, and  their  faith  held  that  the  highest  happiness 
of  man,  after  the  completion  of  his  pilgrimage  here 
below,  would  consist  in  tilling  the  Elysian  fields  of 
the  subterranean  god  Osiris,  in  feeding  and  tending 
his  cattle,  and  navigating  the  breezy  water  of  the 
other  world  in  slender  skiffs.  The  husbandman,  the 
shepherd,  and  the  boatman,  were  in  fact  the  first 
founders  of  the  gentle  manners  —  the  honored  au- 
thors of  that  most  ancient  peaceful  life  —  of  the  peo- 
ple who  flourished  in  the  blessed  valley  of  the  Nile. 
3 


34  THE   TRUE  STORY  OF 

We  cannot  close  this  chapter  without  still  taking 
an  inquiring  look  at  the  peculiar  mental  endow- 
ments of  the  ancient  Egyptians,  about  which  the 
information  of  the  monuments  will  be  of  course  our 
faithful  guides.  There  are  not  wanting  very  learned 
and  intelligent  persons  —  not  excepting  some  who 
have  won  an  illustrious  name  in  historical  inquiries — 
who  teach  us  to  regard  the  Egyptians  as  a  people 
reflective,  serious,  and  reserved,  very  religious,  occu- 
pied only  with  the  other  world,  and  caring  nothing 
or  very  little  about  this  lower  life;  just  as  if  they 
had  been  the  Trappists  of  antiquity.  But  could  it 
have  been  possible  —  we  ask  with  wonder  and  be- 
wilderment—  that  the  fertile  and  bounteous  land, 
that  the  noble  river  which  waters  its  soil,  that  the 
pure  and  smiling  heaven,  that  the  beaming  sun  of 
Egypt,  could  have  produced  a  people  of  living 
mummies  and  of  sad  philosophers,  a  people  who  only 
regarded  this  life  as  a  burden  to  be  thrown  off  as 
soon  as  possible  ?  No !  Travel  through  the  land 
of  the  old  pharaohs ;  look  at  the  pictures  carved  or 
painted  on  the  walls  of  the  sepulchral  chapels  ;  read 
the  words  cut  in  stone  or  written  with  black  ink  on 
the  fragile  papyrus ;  and  you  will  soon  be  obliged  to 
form  another  judgment  on  the  Egyptian  philoso- 
phers. No  people  could  be  gayer,  more  lively,  of 
more  childlike  simplicity,  than  those  old  Egyptians, 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL:  35 

who  loved  life  with  all  their  heart,  and  found  the 
deepest  joy  in  their  very  existence.  Far  from  long- 
ing for  death,  they  addressed  to  the  host  of  the  holy 
gods  the  prayer  to  preserve  and  lengthen  life,  if 
possible,  to  the  '  most  perfect  old  age  of  one  hundred 
and  ten  years.'  They  gave  themselves  up  to  the 
pleasures  of  a  merry  life.  The  song,  and  dance,  and 
flowing  cup,  cheerful  excursions  to  the  meadows  and 
thepapyrus  marshes  —  to  hunt  with  bow  and  arrow 
or  sling,  or  to  fish  with  spear  and  hook  —  heightened 
the  enjoyment  of  life,  and  were  the  recreations  of 
the  nobler  classes  after  work  was  done.  In  connec- 
tion with  this  merry  disposition,  humorous  jests  and 
lively  sallies  of  wit,  often  passing  the  bounds  of 
decorum,  characterized  the  people  from  age  to  age. 
They  were  fond  of  biting  jests  and  smart  innuen- 
dos ;  and  free  social  talk  found  its  way  even  into 
the  silent  chambers  of  the  tomb.  But  the  propensity 
to  pleasure  was  a  dangerous  trap  for  the  youth  of 
the  old  Egyptian  schools,  and  the  judicious  teachers 
had  much  need  to  keep  a  curb  on  the  young  peo- 
ple. If  admonition  utterly  failed,  the  chastising 
stick  came  into  play,  for  the  sages  of  the  country 
believed  that  '  The  ears  of  a  youth  are  on  his 
back.' 

The  lowest  classes  of  the  people,   'the  mob,'  as 
the  inscriptions  call  them,  were  occupied  with  hus- 


36  THE  TRUE  STORY  OF 

bandry,  the  breeding  of  cattle,  navigation,  fishing, 
and  the  different  branches  of  the  most  simple  in- 
dustries. From  a  very  early  period  stone  was 
wrought  according  to  the  rules  of  an  advanced 
skill ;  and  metals,  namely,  gold,  silver,  copper,  iron 
(at  first  meteoric  iron),  were  melted  and  wrought 
into  works  of  art,  or  tools  and  implements;  wood 
and  leather  were  formed  into  a  great  variety  of 
valuable  objects ;  glass  was  cast ;  flax  was  spun  and 
woven  into  stuffs  ;  ropes  were  twisted ;  baskets  and 
mats  of  rushes  were  plaited ;  £ftid  on  the  round 
potter's  wheel  great  and  small  vessels  were  formed 
by  clever  artists  from  the  rich  clay  of  the  Nile,  and 
baked  in  the  fiery  furnace.  Sculptors  and  painters 
found  profitable  work  among  the  rich  patrons  of  art 
at  the  court  of  the  pharaohs ;  and  a  whole  world 
of  busy  artisans  worked  for  daily  wages  under  the 
bright  blue  sky  of  Egypt. 

But  all  these,  the  humble  followers  of  the  earliest 
human  art  industry,  were  held  '  in  bad  odor,'  and 
the  lowest  scribe  in  the  service  of  a  great  man 
looked  down  with  the  greatest  contempt  on  the 
toiling,  laboring  people.  It  was  esteemed  better  to 
be  a  servant  in  the  house  of  the  pharaoh,  and  to 
bustle  about  in  the  service  of  their  masters  in  the 
halls  of  the  noble  families.  Though  themselves 
children  of  the  people,  the  class  of  servants  found 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL,  37 

help  and  protection  from  their  lords,  and  had  a  share 
in  the  honor  of  the  court.  Spoiled  by  the  plenty, 
luxury,  and  extravagance  of  splendid  life,  they 
knew  not  the  painful  lot  of  the  workman.  Death 
itself  did  not  grudge  the  servants  a  part  with  the 
owners  of  the  gorgeous  sepulchres ;  for  in  the  cham- 
bers of  the  dead,  the  deep  pits  of  which  hid  in  the 
place  of  honor  the  embalmed  bodies  of  the  noble 
masters,  room  was  reserved  by  the  artist's  hand  for 
the  memory  of  the  faithful  servant.  But  too  obedi- 
ent to  the  orders  of  their  lords,  the  servants  held  in 
slight  regard  the  '  stinking '  masses  of  the  people, 
and  abhorred  the  society  of  the  '  miserable '  traders 
and  workmen. 

Returning  from  successful  campaigns  abroad  to 
the  banks  of  the  holy  river,  the  princes  and  cap- 
tains of  the  warriors,  in  the  course  of  time,  brought 
a  great  number  of  prisoners  into  the  country,  as 
booty  of  war :  king's  children,  nobles,  and  common 
people  of  foreign  origin.  Some  as  hostages,  others 
as  slaves,  inhabited  the  towns  of  their  Egyptian 
lords ;  those  not  noble  being  promoted  to  the  rank 
of  domestic  servants,  or  condemned  to  work  in  the 
fields  with  the  common  herd  of  the  people.  Dark- 
colored  inhabitants  of  the  southern  regions  of  the 
Upper  Nile,  and  light-colored  Canaanites,  armed 
with  sticks,  attended  the  great  men  on  their  jour- 


38  THE  TRUE  STORY  OF 

neys  as  guards  of  honor,  or,  in  the  service  of  the 
court,  enforced  respect  in  an  office  like  that  of  the 
cawasses  of  our  day. 

The  noble  class  of  the  Egyptian  people  had  noth- 
ing in  common  with  the  vulgar  '  mob ; '  for  they 
derived  their  origin,  for  the  most  part,  from  the 
royal  house,  the  nearest  branches  of  which,  the 
king's  children  and  grandchildren  (Sutenrekh), 
were  held  in  high  honor  and  respect.  To  them 
were  committed  the  highest  offices  of  the  court, 
to  which  they  were  attached  by  abundant  rewards 
from  the  pharaoh's  ever  open  hand.  The  nobles 
held  as  their  hereditary  possessions  villages  and 
tracts  of  land,  with  the  people  thereto  belonging, 
bands  of  servants,  and  numerous  herds  of  cattle. 
To  their  memory,  after  their  decease,  were  dedicated 
those  splendid  tombs,  the  remains  of  which,  on  the 
raised  plain  of  the  Libyan  desert,  or  in  the  caverns 
of  the  Egyptian  hills,  are  still  searched  with  admiring 
wonder  by  later  ages  down  to  our  own  day.  Am- 
bition and  arrogant  pride  form  a  remarkable  feature 
in  the  spirit  of  the  old  dwellers  on  the  Nile.  Work- 
man competed  with  workman,  husbandman  with  hus- 
bandman, official  with  official,  to  outvie  his  fellow, 
and  to  appropriate  the  favor  and  praises  of  the 
noble  lords.  In  the  schools,  where  the  poor  scribe's 
child  sat  on  the  same  bench  beside  the  offspring  of 


THE  EXODUS  OF  ISRAEL.  39 

the  rich,  to  be  trained  in  discipline  and  wise  learn- 
ing, the  masters  knew  how  by  timely  words  to  goad 
on  the  lagging  diligence  of  the  ambitious  scholars, 
by  holding  out  to  them  the  future  reward  which 
awaited  youths  skilled  in  knowledge  and  letters. 
Thus  the  slumbering  spark  of  self-esteem  Avas 
stirred  to  a  flame  in  the  youthful  breast,  and  emu- 
lation was  stimulated  among  the  boys.  The  clever 
son  of  the  poor  man,  too,  might  hope  b}^  his  knowl- 
edge to  climb  the  ladder  of  the  higher  offices ;  for 
neither  his  birth  nor  p\)sition  in  life  raised  any 
barrier,  if  only  the  youth's  mental  power  justified 
fair  hopes  for  the  future.  In  this  sense,  the 
restraints  of  caste  did  not  exist,  and  neither  descent 
nor  family  hampered  the  rising  career  of  the  clever. 
Many  a  monument  consecrated  to  the  memory  of 
some  nobleman  gone  to  his  long  home,  who  during 
life  had  held  high  rank  at  the  court  of  the  pharaoh, 
is  decorated  with  the  simple  but  laudatory  inscrip- 
tion, '  His  ancestors  were  unknown  people.' 

It  is  a  satisfaction  to  avow  tliat  the  training  and 
instruction  of  the  young  interested  the  Egyptians 
in  the  highest  degree  ;  for  they  fully  recognized  in 
this  the  sole  means  of  elevating  their  national  life, 
and  of  fulfilling  the  high  civilizing  mission  which 
Providence  seemed  to  have  placed  in  their  hands. 
But   above   all   things   they  regarded  justice,    and 


40  THE  TRUE  STORY  OF 

virtue  had  the  highest  price  in  their  eyes.  The 
law  which  ordered  them  '  to  pray  to  the  gods,  to 
honor  the  dead,  to  give  bread  to  the  hungry,  water 
to  the  thirsty,  clothing  to  the  naked,'  reveals  to  us 
one  of  the  finest  qualities  of  the  old  Egyptian  char- 
acter—  pity  towards  the  unfortunate.  The  forty- 
two  commandments  of  the  Egyptian  religion,  which 
are  contained  in  the  one  hundred  and  twenty-fifth 
chapter  of  the  '  Book  of  the  Dead,'  are  in  no  way 
inferior  to  the  precepts  of  Christianity;  and,  in  read- 
ing the  old  Egyptian  inscriptions  concerning  moral- 
ity and  the  fear  of  God,  we  are  tempted  to  believe 
that  the  Jewish  lawgiver  Moses  modelled  his  teach- 
ings on  the  patterns  given  by  the  old  Egyptian 
sages. 

But  the  medal  has  its  reverse  side.  The  fore- 
fathers of  the  Egyptians  were  not  free  from  vices 
and  failings,  which  we  cannot  pass  over  in  silence 
without  exposing  ourselves  to  the  reproach  of  flat- 
tery at  the  expense  of  truth.  Hatred,  envy,  cun- 
ning, intrigue,  combined  with  an  overweening  senti- 
ment of  pride,  opposition,  and  perversity,  added  to 
avarice  and  cruelty — such  is  the  long  series  of 
hereditary  faults  which  history  reveals  to  us  among 
the  Eg3^ptians  by  unnumbered  examples  in  the 
course  of  centuries.  We  must  especially  beware 
of  cherishing  the  belief  that  the  rule  of  the  pha- 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  41 

raohs  opened  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  land  the 
gates  of  a  terrestrial  paradise.  The  people  suffered 
and  endured  under  the  blows  of  their  oppressors, 
and  the  stick  settled  the  dispatch  of  business 
between  the  peasant  and  the  tax-gatherer.  We 
need  but  glance  at  the  gigantic  masses  of  the 
pyramids  ;  they  tell  more  emphatically  than  living 
speech  or  written  words  of  the  tears  and  the  pains, 
the  sufferings  and  miseries,  of  a  whole  population, 
which  was  condemned  to  erect  these  everlasting 
monuments  of  pharaonic  vanity.  Three  thousand 
years  were  not  able  to  efface  the  curse  resting  on 
their  memory.  When  Herodotus,  about  the  mid- 
dle of  the  fifth  century  before  Christ,  visited  the 
field  of  the  great  pyramids  of  Gizeh,  the  Egyptians 
told  him  of  the  imprecations  wrung  from  their  un- 
happy forefathers,  and  they  would  not,  from  abhor- 
rence, so  much  as  utter  the  names  of  the  kings 
who  constructed  the  two  highest  pyramids,  whom 
we  now  know  to  have  been  the  pharaohs  Khufu 
and  Khafra. 


42  THE  TRUE  STORY  OF 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE  CHKONOLOGY   OF   THE  PHABAONIC  HISTORY. 

If  the  reader's  curiosity  leads  him  to  an  inquiry 
concerning  the  epochs  of  time  already  fixed  in  the 
history  of  the  pharaohs,  and  to  a  critical  examina- 
tion of  the  chronological  tables  thus  far  composed 
by  scholars,  he  must  be  strangely  impressed  by  the 
conflict  of  most  diverse  views  in  the  computations 
of  the  most  modern  school.  As  to  the  era,  for 
example,  when  the  first  pharaoh,  Mena,  mounted 
the  throne,  the  German  Egyptologers  have  attempt- 
ed to  fix  it  at  the  following  epochs: 


B.C. 

B.  c. 

Boeckh,     . 

.      5702 

Lauth,     . 

.      4157 

linger, 

.      5613 

Lepsius,  . 

.      3892 

Brugsch,  . 

.      4465 

Bunsen,  . 

.      3623 

The  calculations  in  question  are  based  on  the  ex- 
tracts that  have  been  preserved  from  a  work  by  the 
Egyptian  priest  Manetho  on  the  history  of  Egypt. 
That  learned  man  had  then  at  his  command  the 
annals  of  his  country's  history,  which  were  pre- 
served  in   the   temples,  and  from   them,  the   best 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  43 

and  most  accurate  sources,  he  derived  the  mate- 
rials for  his  work,  composed  in  the  Greek  hin- 
guage,  on  the  history  of  the  ancient  Egyptian 
dynasties.  His  book,  which  is  now  lost,  contained 
a  general  review  of  the  kings  of  the  land,  divided 
into  thirty  dynasties,  arranged  in  the  order  of  their 
names,  with  the  lengths  of  their  reigns,  and  the 
total  duration  of  each  dynasty.  Though  this  inval- 
uable work  was  little  known  and  certainly  but  little 
regarded  by  the  historians  of  the  old  classical  age, 
large  extracts  were  made  from  it  by  some  of  the 
ecclesiastical  writers.  In  process  of  time  the  copy- 
ists, either  by  error  or  designedly,  corrupted  the 
names  and  the  numbers,  and  thus  we  only  possess 
at  the  present  day  the  ruins  instead  of  the  com- 
plete building.  The  truth  of  the  original,  and  «the 
authenticity  of  his  sources,  was  first  proved  by  the 
deciphering  of  the  Egyptian  writing.  And  thus 
the  Manethonian  list  of  the  kings  served,  and  still 
serves,  as  a  guide  for  assigning  to  the  royal  names 
read  on  the  monuments  their  place  in  the  dynasties, 
as,  on  the  other  hand,  the  monuments  have  enabled 
us  with  certainty  to  restore  to  their  correct  orthog- 
raphy many  of  the  kings'  names  which  have  been 
corrupted  in  the  Manethonian  lists.  The  very 
thorough  investigations,  to  which  learned  experts 
have  subjected  the  succession  of  the  pharaohs  and 


44  TEE  TRUE  STORY  OF 

the  chronological  order  of  the  dynasties,  have  showr 
the  absolute  necessity  of  supposing  in  the  list  oi 
Manetho  contemporary  and  collateral  dynasties,  and 
thus  of  diminishing  considerably  the  total  duration 
of  the  thirty  dynasties.  Notwithstanding  all  these 
discoveries,  the  figures  are  in  a  deplorable  state. 
From  the  nature  of  the  calculation,  based  on  the 
exact  determination  of  the  regnal  years  of  the 
kings,  every  number  which  is  rectified  necessarily 
changes  the  results  of  the  whole  series  of  numbers. 
It  is  only  from  the  beginning  of  the  twenty-sixth 
dynasty  that  the  chronology  is  founded  on  data 
which  leave  little  to  be  desired  as  to  their  exacti- 
tude. 

Assuming,  according  to  £he  well-known  calcula- 
tion of  the  father  of  history,  Herodotus,  the  round 
number  of  a  century  for  three  consecutive  human 
lives,  we  possess  a  means  of  determining  approxi- 
mately the  periods  of  time  which  have  elapsed,  on 
the  one  hand,  from  king  Mena  to  the  end  of  the 
twelfth  dynasty,  and  again  from  the  beginning  of 
the  eighteenth  dynasty  to  the  end  of  the  twenty- 
sixth. 

The  new  Table  of  Abydus,  discovered  eleven 
years  ago  in  a  corridor  of  the  temple  of  Seti  I.,  at 
Harabat-el-Madfoimeh,  gives  a  succession  of  sixty- 
five  kings  from  Mena,  the  founder  of  the  line,  down 


THE  EXODUS  OF  ISRAEL.  45 

to  the  last  reign  of  the  twelfth  dynasty.  To*  these 
sovereigns  therefore  would  be  assigned  a  period  of 
^  X  100  =  2166  years,  leaving  the  fractional  re- 
mainder out  of  the  account. 

If  we  were  to  believe  the  Table  of  Abydus  alone, 
the  princes  of  the  twelfth  dynasty  would  have  had 
the  pharaohs  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty  for  their 
immediate  successors,  without  any  break  or  inter- 
regnum. This  would  be  in  accordance  with  the 
fact  perceived  by  the  acujteness  of  Mariette-Bey, 
that  the  old  Egyptian  proper  names  of  the  persons 
of  the  twelfth,  and  especially  of  the  eleventh  dy- 
nasty, recur  in  the  same  forms  on  the  monuments 
of  the  commencement  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty ; 
and  further,  that  at  these  two  periods  of  Egyptian 
history  the  form  and  ornaments  of  the  coffins  are 
so  alike  as  to  be  undistinguishable.  Here  we  have 
a  remarkable  enigma,  for  the  solution  of  which  we 
do  not  yet  possess  the  requisite  data. 

If  we  admit,  according  to  the  evidence  of  the 
Table  of  Abydus,  the  sudden  transition  from  the 
twelfth  to  the  eighteenth  dynasty,  the  historical 
beginning  of  the  Egyptian  empire  would  fall  about 
the  year  3724  b.  c,  namely,  two  thousand  one  hun- 
dred and  sixty-six  years  before  1558  B.  c.  But  if, 
on  the  other  hand,  we  assume  in  round  numbers 
five   hundred  years   as   the   intermediate   space   of 


46  THE   TRUE  STORY  OF 

time  ^hich  divides  the  end  of  the  twelfth  from  the 
beginning  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty,  the  result 
would  be  that  Mena  ascended  the  throne  of  Horus 
five  hundred  years  before  the  year  3724,  that  is,  in 
4244  B.  c. 

Had  the  Turin  papyrus  been  preserved  to  us  in 
its  entire  state ;  had  we  possessed  the  complete  list 
of  the  historical  kings  of  the  Egyptian  empire,  we 
should  probably  have  been  in  a  position  to  mould 
into  a  perfect  shape  even  the  most  ancient  part 
of  Egyptian  history,  with  the  dates  belonging  to  it. 
But,  as  the  case  stands  at  present,  no  mortal  man 
possesses  the  means  of  removing  the  difficulties 
which  are  inseparable  from  the  attempt  to  restore 
the  original  list  of  kings  from  the  fragments  of  the 
Turin  papyrus. 

The  chronological  table  of  the  history  of  the 
Egyptian  kingdom,  which  is  given  at  the  end  of 
this  work  (Appendix  A),  is  founded  on  the  prin- 
ciples above  explained,  as  far  as  dates  are  con- 
cerned, and  is  only  presented  to  the  reader  with 
the  extremest  caution.  I  would  make  the  general 
remark,  that  the  numbers  of  years  assigned  to  the 
dynasties  and  to  the  individual  pharaohs  claim 
merely  the  value  of  an  approximation,  but  never- 
theless they  do  not  on  the  average  exceed  their 
actual  ages  obtained  from  the  monuments. 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL,  47 


CHAPTER   IV. 

MENA,  AND    THE   EARLY  DYNASTIES.  —  THE 
PYRAMIDS   AND   SPHINX. 

Mena,  the  founder  of  the  monarchy,  whose  name 
signifies  '  the  constant,'  reigned  first  at  Tini,  a  little 
town  of  which  scarce  a  trace  now  remains.  Ac- 
cording to  tradition,  he  also  built  the  larger  capital 
of  Memphis,  having  first  made  a  site  for  the  city 
by  turning  the  course  of  the  Nile.  The  Egyptian 
name  is  Mennofer,  '  the  good  place.'  The  ruins  of 
this  city  were  well  preserved  down  to  the  thir- 
teenth century,  at  which  time  they  were  described 
in  glowing  phrases  by  an  Arabian  physician,  Abd- 
ul-Latif.  But  the  stones  were  transported  to  Cairo 
and  used  for  the  construction  of  mosques  and  pal- 
aces. This  city,  next  to  Thebes,  holds  a  large  place 
in  Egyptian  history.  It  was  the  first  great  seat  of 
power,  and  for  a  long  time  the  religious  metropolis. 
Along  the  far-stretching  margin  of  the  desert,  from 
Abu-Roash  to  Meidum,  lay  in  silent  tranquillity  the 
necropolis  of  Memphis  with  its  wealth  of  tombs, 
overlooked   by    the    stupendous    buildings    of    the 


48  THE   TRUE  STORY  OF 

pyramids,  which  rose  high  above  the  monuments 
of  the  noblest  among  the  noble  families,  who,  even 
after  life  was  done,  reposed  in  deep  pits  at  the  feet 
of  their  lords  and  masters.  The  contemporaries  of 
the  third,  fourth,  and  fifth  dynasties  are  here  bur- 
ied ;  but  their  memory  has  been  preserved  by  pic- 
tures and  writings  on  the  walls  of  the  sacrificial 
chambers  built  over  their  tombs.  From  this  source 
flows  the  stream  of  tradition  which  carries  us  back 
to  the  time  and  to  the  soil  of  the  oldest  kingdom  in 
the  land.  If  this  countless  number  of  tombs  had 
been  preserved  to  us,  it  would  have  been  an  easy 
task  to  reconstruct  before  our  eyes,  in  uninter- 
rupted succession,  the  genealogy  of  the  kings  and 
of  the  noble  lines  related  to  them.  Fate,  however, 
has  not  granted  this ;  for  their  monuments,  names, 
and  deeds  are  buried  and  forgotten ;  but  even  the 
few  remaining  heaps  of  ruins  enable  us  to  imagine 
the  lost  in  all  its  greatness. 

The  eloquent  language  of  the  stones,  speaking  to 
us  from  the  tombs  of  the  necropolis  of  Memphis, 
tells  us  much  concerning  the  usages  of  pharaoh  and 
his  court.  The  king  himself  is  officially  designated 
by  the  most  complete  title,  '  king  of  Upper  and 
Lower  Egypt.'  His  high  dignity  is  also  concealed 
under  other  names,  as,  for  instance,  Perao  —  that 
is,  '  of  the  great  house/  well  known  as  Pharaoh  in 


TEE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  49 

the  Bible.  For  his  subjects  the  pharaoh  was  a  god 
(nuter)  and  lord  (neb)  par  excellence.  At  sight  of 
him  thej  were  obliged  to  prostrate  themselves,  rub- 
bing the  ground  with  their  noses;  sometimes,  by 
the  gracious  order  of  the  king,  they  only  touched 
the  knee  of  the  omnipotent.  In  speaking  of  him, 
they  very  often  used  the  words  '  his  holiness.' 

The  royal  court  was  composed  of  the  nobility  of 
the  country,  and  of  the  servants  of  inferior  rank. 
Not  only  the  splendor  of  their  origin  gave  the 
nobles  dignity  in  the  eyes  of  the  people,  but  still 
more  their  wisdom,  manners,  and  virtues.  The 
persons  belonging  to  the  first  class  of  the  nobility 
generally  bore  the  title  Erpa, '  hereditary  highness ; ' 
Ha,  'prince;'  Set,  'the  illustrious;'  Semer-ua-t, 
'  the  intimate  friend.'  The  affairs  of  the  court  and 
of  the  administration  of  the  country  were  conducted 
by  '  the  chiefs '  or  the  secretaries,  and  by  a  numer- 
ous class  of  scribes. 

The  first  king  of  whom  much  is  really  known  is 
Senoferu,  '  he  who  makes  good ; '  his  predecessors 
are  shadows  ;  he  is  an  undoubtedly  historic  man. 

So  far  as  we  are  acquainted  with  the  monuments, 
king  Senoferu  is  the  first  ruler  who  had  four  titles 
of  honor.  Three  name  him  commonly  without  dif- 
ference '  the  lord  of  truth  ; '  the  fourth  is  the  name 
Senoferu,  by  which  he  was  known  to  his  father  and 
4 


50  THE   TRUE  STORY  OF 

his  people.  On  the  steep  rock  of  Wodj-Magharah, 
where  ancient  caverns  have  been  formed  by  the 
hand  of  man,  and  the  traces  of  the  miners  are 
easily  discovered,  Senoferu  appears  as  a  warrior, 
who  strikes  to  the  ground  a  vanquished  enemy  with 
a  mighty  club.  The  inscription,  engraved  by  the 
side  of  the  picture,  mentions  him  clearly  by  name 
and  with  the  title  of  '  vanquisher  of  foreign  peoples' 
who  in  his  time  inhabited  the  cavernous  valleys  of 
the  mountains  round  Sinai. 

Even  at  this  day  the  pilgrim,  whom  the  desire  of 
knowledge  brings  to  these  parts,  and  whose  foot 
treads  hurriedly  the  gloomy,  barren  valleys  of 
Sinai,  sees  traces  of  the  old  works  in  the  caverns 
dating  from  the  spring-time  of  the  world's  history. 
He  sees  and  reads  on  the  half-worn  stone  a  vast 
number  of  pictures  and  writings.  Standing  on  the 
high  rock,  which  boldly  commands  the  entrance  to 
Wady-Magharah,  his  eye  discovers  without  trouble 
the  last  ruins  of  a  strong  fortress,  whose  stout  walls 
once  contained  huts  near  a  deep  well,  and  protected 
the  Egyptian  troops  from  hostile  attack. 

The  pharaohs  of  the  fifth  dynasty  still  resided  at 
Memphis,  and  were  the  builders  of  the  hugest  of  the 
pyramids. 

According  to  the  sure  testimony  of  the  tables 
of   Abydus    and    Saqqarah,   the   successor    of    the 


THE  EXODUS  OF  ISRAEL.  51 

good  king  Senoferu  was .  Khufu.  It  is  he  whom 
the  writers  of  Greek  antiquity  call  sometimes 
Cheops  (Herodotus),  Chemmis  or  Chembes  (Dio- 
dorus),  while  the  epitomist  of  Manetho  transcribes 
his  name  Suphis,  and  Eratosthenes,  in  the  Theban 
list  of  kings,  cites  it  as  Saophis.  With  him  begin 
the  memorable  traditions  of  Egyptian  history. 

No  one  who  has  had  the  happiness  —  whether 
from  chance  or  purpose,  or  in  the  way  of  his  call- 
ing —  to  set  foot  on  the  black  soil  of  Egypt,  ever 
turns  back  on  his  homeward  way  before  his  eyes 
have  looked  upon  that  wonder  of  antiquity,  the 
threefold  mass  of  the  pyramids  on  the  steep  edge 
of  the  desert,  which  you  reach  after  an  hour's  ride 
over  the  long  causeway  from  the  village  of  Gizeh, 
which  stands  close  upon  the  left  bank  of  the  Nile. 
The  desert's  boundless  sea  of  yellow  sand — whose 
billows  are  piled  up  around  the  gigantic  mass  of 
the  pyramids,  deeply  entombing  the  tomb  itself, 
like  a  corpse  long  since  deceased  —  surges  hot  and 
dry  far  up  the  green  meadow,  with  its  scattered 
vegetation  where  the  grains  of  sand  and  corn 
are  intermingled.  From  the  far  distance  you  see 
the  giant  forms  of  the  pyramids,  as  if  they  were 
regularly  crystallized  mountains,  which  the  ever- 
creating  Nature  has  called  forth  from  the  mother 
soil  of  rock,  to  lift  themselves  up  towards  the  blue 


52  THE   TRUE   STORY  OF 

vault  of  heaven.  And  yet  they  are  but  tombs,  built 
by  the  hands  of  men,  which,  raised  by  king  Khufu 
and  two  other  pharaohs  of  the  same  family  and 
dynasty,  have  been  the  admiration  and  astonish- 
ment alike  of  the  ancient  and  modern  world,  as  an 
incomparable  work  of  power.  Perfectly  adjusted 
to  the  cardinal  points  of  the  horizon  —  the  S.  and 
N.,  the  E.  and  W.  —  they  differ  in  breadth  and 
height,  as  is  shown  by  the  measurements  of  Colonel 
Vyse : 

Height.  Breadth  at  base. 

1.  Pyramid  of  Khufu,        450-75  feet.  746  feet  (Eng.) 

2.  Pyramid  of  Khafra,         447-5      "  690  75         " 

3.  Pyramid  of  Menkara,     203        «  352-878       " 

As  soon  as  a  pharaoh  mounted  the  throne,  the 
sovereign  gave  orders  to  a  nobleman,  the  master 
of  all  the  buildings  of  his  land,  to  plan  the  work 
and  cut  the  stone.  The  kernel  of  the  future  edi- 
fice was  raised  on  the  limestone  soil  of  the  desert, 
in  the  form  of  a  small  pyramid  built  in  steps,  of 
which  the  well-constructed  and  finished  interior 
formed  the  king's  eternal  dwelling,  with  his  stone 
sarcophagus  lying  on  the  rocky  floor.  Let  us  sup- 
pose that  this  first  building  was  finished  while  the 
pharaoh  still  lived  in  the  bright  sunlight.  A  sec- 
ond covering  was  added,  stone  by  stone,  on  the 
outside  of  the  kernel  \  a  third  to  this  second ;  and 
to  this  even  a  fourth ;   and  the  mass  of  the  giant 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  53 

building  grew  greater  the  longer  the  king  enjoyed 
existence.  And  then,  at  last,  when  it  became  al- 
most impossible  to  extend  the  area  of  the  pj^ramid 
further,  a  casing  of  hard  stone,  polished  like  glass, 
and  fitted  accurately  into  the  angles  of  the  steps, 
covered  the  vast  mass  of  the  king's  sepulchre, 
presenting  a  gigantic  triangle  on  each  of  its  four 
faces. 

More  than  seventy  such  pyramids  once  rose  on 
the  margin  of  the  desert,  each  telling  of  a  king,  of 
whom  it  was  at  once  the  tomb  and  monument.  Had 
not  the  greater  number  of  these  sepulchres  of  the 
pharaohs  been  destroyed  almost  to  the  foundation, 
and  had  the  names  of  the  builders  of  those  which 
still  stand  been  accurately  preserved,  it  would  have 
been  easy  for  the  inquirer  to  prove  and  make  clear 
by  calculation  what  was  originally,  and  of  necessity, 
the  proportion  between  the  masses  of  the  pyra- 
mids and  the  years  of  the  reigns  of  their  respective 
builders. 

The  Sphinx  was  sculptured  at  some  time  not  far 
removed  from  the  building  of  the  three  great  pyra- 
mids. Recent  discoveries  have  increased  the  aston- 
ishment of  mankind  at  the  huge  bulk  of  this  mon- 
strous figure,  and  at  the  vast  and  unknown  buildings 
that  stood  around  it,  and,  as  it  were,  lay  between 
its  paws.    It  is  within  a  few  years  that  the  sand  has 


54  TEE  TRUE  STORY  OF 

been  blown  away  and  revealed  these  incomprehen- 
sible structures.  In  a  well  near  by  was  found  a 
finely  executed  statue  of  Khafra,  builder  of  the  sec- 
ond pyramid.  Clear  and  significant  inscriptions 
upon  these  temple-buildings  attest  the  truth  of 
tradition,  and  support  the  received  chronology. 

After  Khafra's  passage  home  to  the  realm  of  the 
dead,  where  the  king  of  the  gods,  Osiris,  held  the 
sceptre,  Men-kau-ra  ascended  the  throne.  His 
pyramid  is  called  in  the  texts  by  the  name  of  hir^ 
that  is,  *  the  high  one.'  When  Colonel  Vyse  found 
his  way  to  the  middle  of  the  chamber  of  the  dead, 
and  entered  into  the  silent  space  of  '  Eternity,'  his 
eye  discerned,  as  the  last  trace  of  Menkaura's  place 
of  burial,  the  wooden  cover  of  the  sarcophagus,  and 
the  stone  coffin  hewn  out  of  one  hard  block,,  beau- 
tifully adorned  outside  in  the  style  of  a  temple, 
according  to  the  fashion  of  the  masters  of  the  old 
empire.  The  sarcophagus  rests  now  at  the  bottom 
of  the  Mediterranean,  the  English  vessel  which  was 
conveying  it  having  been  wrecked  near  Gibraltar. 
The  cover,  which  was  saved,  thanks  to  the  material 
of  which  it  was  composed,  is  now  exhibited  in  the 
gallery  of  Egyptian  antiquities  in  the  British  Mu- 
seum. Its  outside  is  adorned  with  a  short  text  con- 
ceived in  the  following  terms  : 

"  O  Osiris,  who  hast  become  king  of  Egypt,  Men- 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  55 

kaura  living  eternally,  child  of  Olympus,*  son  of 
Urania,  heir  of  Kronos,  over  thee  may  she  stretch 
herself  and  cover  thee,  thy  divine  mother,  Urania, 
in  her  name  as  mystery  of  heaven.  May  she  grant 
that  thou  shouldest  be  like  God,  free  from  all  evils, 
King  Menkaura,  living  eternally." 

This  prayer  is  of  very  ancient  origin,  for  there 
are  examples  of  it  found  on  the  covers  of  sarcophagi 
belonging  to  the  dynasties  of  the  ancient  empire. 
The  sense  of  it  is  full  of  significance.  Delivered  from 
mortal  matter,  the  soul  of  the  defunct  king  passes 
through  the  immense  space  of  heaven  to  unite  itself 
with  God,  after  having  overcome  the  evil  which  op- 
posed it  during  its  life  on  its  terrestrial  journey. 

The  kings  of  the  fifth  dynasty  continued  to  reside 
at  Memphis,  and  each  appears  to  have  built  a  pyra- 
mid for  his  tomb,  although  but  few  of  them  can 
now  be  identified.  The  names,  however,  are  pre- 
served, such  as  Qebeh,  '  the  cool,'  Nuter-setu,  '  the 
most  holy  place,'  and  the  like. 

According  to  the  monuments,  the  successor  of 
Menkaura  bore  two  names.  The  first,  the  most 
frequent,  is  Tat-ka-ra,  and  the  second  Assa.  He 
has  also  left  texts  at  Wady-Magharah,  which  tell 
us  of  works  executed  during  his  reign  in  the  mines 

*  The  translator  here  uses  Greek  equivalents  that  aflfect  one 
like  anachronisms. 


56  THE   TRUE  STORY  OF 

of  this  mountain.  His  pjTamid  is  called  nofer^  that 
is,  '  the  beautiful ; '  unfortunately  we  have  no  means 
of  fixing  its  position.  A  very  precious  recollection 
of  him  has  been  preserved  in  a  literary  work  com- 
posed by  his  son,  Prince  Patah-hotep.  Let  us  sa}^ 
a  word  on  this  papyrus,  which  is  probably  the  most 
ancient  manuscript  in  the  world,  and  which  is  bet- 
ter known  under  the  name  of  the  Prisse  papyrus. 
It  was  bought  by  a  Frenchman  of  this  name  at 
Thebes,  and  given  to  the  National  Library  at  Paris. 
The  greater  part  of  this  document  contains  a 
treatise  by  the  son  of  Assa,  and  relates  to  the  vir- 
tues necessary  for  man,  and  to  the  best  manner 
of  arranging  his  life  and  making  his  way  in  the 
world.  The  general  title  is  conceived  in  these 
words :  "  This  is  the  teaching  of  the  governor  Patah- 
hotep  under  the  majesty  of  King  Assa ;  long  may 
he  live."  At  the  time  when  he  composed  his  book, 
he  must  have  been  very  old,  since  he  describes  the 
decrepitude  of  his  old  age  in  very  significant  terms. 
"  The  eyes,"  he  says,  "  are  very  diminutive,  and  the 
ears  stopped  up ;  power  is  constantly  diminished, 
the  mouth  is  silent  and  does  not  speak,  the  mem- 
ory is  closed  and  does  not  remember  the  past. 
The  bones  are  not  in  a  state  to  render  service ; 
that  which  was  good  is  become  bad.  Even  the 
taste  is  gone.     Old  age  makes  a  man  miserable  in 


THE  EXODUS  OF  ISRAEL.  57 

every  way.  The  nose  is  stopped  and  does  not 
breathe."  It  was  thus  that  the  prince  begins  the 
question  which  forms  the  subject  of  his  book, 
which  was  to  give  to  youth  precepts  which  were 
justified  by  the  practice  of  his  long  life,  and  fre- 
quently given  in  a  humorous  vein. 

It  is  extremely  interesting  to  follow  the  simple 
words  which  in  an  antique  style  represent  the 
thoughts  of  the  old  man,  and  which  touch  almost 
all  the  conditions  of  human  life.  One  of  the  most 
beautiful  specimens  is  without  doubt  the  following 
piece.  He  characterizes  admirably  the  spirit  of 
humanity  which  breathes  through  these  precepts 
of  a  very  high  moral  tendency.  "  If  thou  art  be- 
come great,  after  thou  hast  been  humble,  and  if 
thou  hast  amassed  riches  after  poverty,  being 
because  of  that  the  first  in  thy  town  ;  if  thou  art 
known  for  thy  wealth,  and  art  become  a  great 
lord,  let  not  thy  heart  become  proud  because  of 
thy  riches,  for  it  is  God  who  is  the  author  of  them 
for  thee.  Despise  not  another  who  is  as  thou  wast ; 
be  towards  him  as  towards  thy  equal." 

Although  the  tombs  of  this  ancient  epoch  reveal 
to  us  frequently  traits,  extremely  favorable  to  our 
ideas  of  humanity,  we  cannot  compare  what  they 
tell  us  with  the  na'ive  and  simple  language  of  the 
precepts  of  Prince  Patah-hotep.     It  is  neither  the 


5S  ^^^  TRUE  STORY  OF 

priest  nor  the  prince  wlio  addresses  the  youth  of 
his  day;  it  is  simply  the  man  who  teaches  them. 
Nor  is  he  a  morose  philosopher.  Is  there  anything 
truer,  and  at  the  same  time  more  persuasive,  than 
his  exhortation,  "  Let  thy  face  be  cheerful  as  long 
as  thou  livest ;  has  any  one  come  out  of  the  coffin 
after  having  once  entered  it  ?  " 


THE  EXODUS  OF  ISRAEL.  59 


CHAPTER  V. 

AET  AND  AECHITECTURE  IN  THE  TWELFTH 
DYNASTY. 

With  this  fifth  dynasty  ended  the  first  great 
division  of  the  series  of  pharaohs,  and  also  the  pre- 
eminence of  Memphis.  The  seat  of  government 
vras  transferred  to  middle  Egypt,  and  at  some  time 
during  the  sixth  dynasty  Thebes  arose.  But  though 
there  are  many  pharaohs  whose  names  are  well 
known  and  of  whose  exploits  there  are  some  traces, 
yet  for  the  most  part  a  veil  of  impenetrable  dark- 
ness rests  upon  the  long  period  down  to  the  end  of 
the  eleventh  dynasty. 

The  twelfth  dynasty  stands  out  in  a  light  that 
has  almost  the  clearness  of  authentic  history.  It  was 
a  period  in  which  strong  monarchs  ruled,  and  in 
which  art  was  cultivated  with  magnificent  results. 
Thebes  was  the  capital,  and  upon  its  temples  and 
palaces  the  most  enormous  labor  and  expense  was 
lavishly  bestowed.  The  sanctuary  of  the  great  tem- 
ple of  Amon,  at  Karnac,  whose  ruins  present  to 
us  walls,  columns  (the  so-called  Proto-Doric),  and 


60  THE  TRUE  STORY  OF 

pictures  covered  with  the  names  of  the  kings  of  this 
house,  kept  on  increasing  from  this  time  of  its 
foundation,  till  it  became  an  imperial  building, 
whose  walls  of  stone  reveal  to  us  the  history  of  the 
Theban  kings. 

What  lends  a  high  worth  to  these  ages  is  not  only 
the  greatness  of  the  kings,  founded  on  the  wisdom 
of  their  domestic  rule,  and  the  glory  of  their  vic- 
tories in  foreign  countries :  art  also,  with  all  its 
striving  after  beauty  and  noble  forms,  was  cherished 
by  these  rulers,  and  skilful  masters  produced  an 
immense  number  of  beautiful  works  and  pictures. 
Their  ancestors  of  earlier  times  had  already  under- 
stood how  to  work  with  unknown  but  incomparable 
tools  the  hard  substance  of  the  granite  and  similar 
stones,  to  polish  the  surface  like  a  mirror,  and  to  fit 
the  gigantic  masses  together,  not  unfrequently  with 
iron  clamps,  as  in  the  structure  of  the  Great  Pyra- 
mid. But,  although  the  hand  of  the  studious  artist 
had  worked  in  hard  stone,  and  fashioned  after  life 
what  nature  had  already  produced  in  flesh  and  bone> 
yet  there  was  still  wanting  the  last  stamp  of  per- 
fection —  namely,  beauty  which  moves  us  to  admi- 
ration. Beginning  with  the  race  of  the  Theban 
kings  of  the  twelfth  dynasty,  the  harmonious  form 
of  beauty  united  with  truth  and  nobleness  meets  the 
eye  of  the  beholder  as  well  in  buildings  as  in  statues. 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  61 

The  great  labyrinth  and  the  excavation  for  the 
artificial  lake  Moeris  were  made  during  this  period. 
In  every  part  of  the  kingdom  the  power  of  these 
pharaohs  was  felt.  In  Tanis,  'the  great  city'  of 
the  lower  country,  inhabited  all  round  by  races  of 
Semitic  origin,  the  kings  of  the  twelfth  dynasty  had 
already  raised  buildings  and  invoked  the  sculptor's 
art,  to  do  honor  to  the  gods  themselves  by  these 
splendid  works.  *The  portrait  of  Usurtasen  even 
has  been  found  in  some  ruins  of  this  temple  world. 

The  rich  paintings  placed  with  profusion  on  the 
walls  of  the  tomb  of  Khnumhotep,  a  great  lord 
under  the  reign  of  Usurtasen  II.,  have  an  inestima- 
ble value  for  a  knowledge  of  the  arts,  the  trades, 
and  the  domestic  and  public  life  of  the  Egyptians 
of  this  epoch,  quite  apart  from  the  holy  things  to 
which,  in  detail,  the  paintings  and  inscriptions  re- 
late. The  very  interesting  scenes  with  which  the 
hall  of  sacrifice  is  adorned  are  of  great  importance 
in  an  historical  point  of  view.  They  relate  to  the 
arrival  in  Egypt  of  a  family  of  the  Semitic  nation 
of  the  Amu,  which  has  quitted  its  native  country  to 
fix  its  abode  on  the  blessed  banks  of  the  Nile.  This 
family  is  composed  of  thirty-seven  persons,  men, 
women,  and  children,  who  present  their  respects 
to  the  person  of  Khnumhotep,  asking  of  him,  as  it 
seems,  a  good  reception.     The  royal  scribe  Nofer- 


62  THE   TRUE  STORY  OF 

hotep,  an  official  in  the  service  of  Khnumliotep, 
offers  to  his  chief  a  leaf  of  papyrus,  with  an  inscrip- 
tion in  this  sense  :  "  In  the  sixth  year  in  the  reign 
of  King  Usurtasen  II. ;  an  account  of  the  Amu  who 
brought  to  the  king's  son,  Khnumhotep,  while  he 
was  alive,  the  paint  for  the  eyes  called  Mastemut 
of  the  country  of  Pitshu.  Their  number  is  com- 
posed of  thirty-seven  persons."  The  scribe  in  ques- 
tion is  followed  by  another  personage,  an  Egyptian 
by  nation,  whom  a  small  hieroglyphic  legend  desig- 
nates as  '  the  steward  of  those,  of  the  name  of 
Khiti.'  Without  doubt,  then,  these  Semitic  immi- 
grants, as  soon  as  they  arrived  in  the  territory  of 
Khnumhotep,  were  placed  under  the  care  of  Khiti. 
After  these  personages,  who  are  charged  with  the 
introduction,  the  chief  of  the  Amu  presents  himself 
with  his  suite.  The  first  bears  the  name  and  the 
title  of  '  hak  prince  of  the  country  of  Abesha.' 
Tills  name  is  of  pure  Semitic  origin,  and  recalls  that 
of  Abishai,  borne  by  the  son  of  the  sister  of  king 
David,  who  was  distinguished  by  his  military  tal- 
ents in  the  service  of  his  uncle.  Our  Abesha 
approaches  respectfully  the  person  of  Khnumhotep, 
whom  'the  eldest  son  whom  God  had  given  him 
accompanies,'  and  offers  him,  as  a  gift  or  baksheesh, 
a  magnificent  wild  goat  of  the  kind  still  found  in 
our  day  on  the  rocks  of  the  peninsula  of  Sinai.     Be- 


THE  EXODUS  OF  ISRAEL.  63 

hind  him  we  see  his  travelling  companions,  bearded 
men,   armed   with    lances,   bows,   and    clubs ;    the 
women,  dressed  in  the  lively  fashions  of  the  Amu ; 
the  children,  and  the  asses,  loaded  with  the  baggage 
of  the  travellers,  fixing  their  curious  eyes  on   the 
Egyptian   lord   Khnumhotep;   while   a    companion 
of  the  little  party  seems  to  elicit  the  harmony  of 
sounds,  by  the  aid  of  a  plectrum,  playing  on  a  lyre 
of  very  old. form.     An  inscription,  traced  above  the 
scene  which  we  have  been  describing,  reads, '  paint  for 
the  eyes,  Mastemut,  which  thirty-seven  Amu  bring.' 
The  paint  in   question  was  an  article  very  much 
prized  in   Egypt.     It  served  as  a  cosmetic  to  dye 
the  eyebrows  and  the  eyelids  a  black  color ;  and 
they  painted  under  the  two  eyes  a  green  stripe  as  a 
strange  adornment.      This  paint  was  furnished  by 
the  Arabs  or  Shasu,  who  inhabited  the  land  called 
Pitshu  (the  particular  Egyptian  term  for  the  better 
known  Midian),  and,  with  their  laden  beasts,  took 
*■  the  desert  route  from  the  east  to  Egypt,  to  traffic 
with   the   inhabitants   of  the   Nile   valley.       This 
curious  picture  may  serve  as  an  illustration  of  the 
■  history  of  the  sons  of  Jacob,  who  arrived  in  Egypt 
to  implore  the  favor  of  Joseph.     But  it  would  be 
a  singular  error  to  suppose  in  this  picture  at  Beni- 
Hassan   any  allusion   to  the   history   in  the   Holy 
Scriptures. 


64  THE  TRUE  STORY  OF 


CHAPTER   VI. 

SEMITES  AND  EGYPTIANS. 

According  to  the  testimony  of  the  Turin  book 
of  the  kings,  the  reigns  of  the  rulers,  who  towards 
the  end  of  the  thirteenth  dynasty  occupied  the 
throne,  must  have  been  of  comparatively  short 
duration,  since  they  scarcely  lasted  on  an  average 
for  four  3^ears.  The  cause  of  such  a  striking  fact 
must  be  sought  in  internal  troubles  in  the  empire, 
in  civil  wars  and  struggles  of  individual  occupants 
of  the  throne,  who  interrupted  the  regular  succes- 
sion, and  made  the  existence  of  collateral  dynasties 
very  probable.  Next  to  the  kings  of  the  thirteenth 
dynasty  of  Theban  or  Upper  Egyptian  origin,  there 
appeared  seventy-six  pharaohs,  who,  according  to 
the  Manethonian  account,  had  fixed  their  royal 
abode  in  the  Lower  Egyptian  town  Sakhau,  or 
Khasau,  called  by  the  Greeks  Xois.  This  internal 
discord,  caused  by  the  ambitious  plans  of  the  pos- 
sessors of  power  in  Upper  and  Lower  Egypt,  gives 
us  on  the  one  hand  the  explanation  of  the  long 
silence   of  the   contemporary   monuments,  and  on 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  Q^ 

the  other  hand  a  key  to  the  full  understanding  of 
the  success  of  the  warlike  invasion,  which  brought 
a  foreign  race  into  Egypt,  who  would  never  have 
dared  to  oppose  the  armed  powers  of  the  united 
empire  of  Kemi. 

The  inhabitants  settled  between  the  branches  of 
the  Nile  were  for  the  most  part  of  pure  Egyptian 
race.  The  boundary  of  demarcation,  which  sepa- 
rated this  race  from  the  neighboring  peoples,  was 
on  the  west  the  so-called  Canopic  branch  of  the 
Nile,  as  the  Pelusiac  branch  was  the  boundary  in 
the  opposite  direction  to  the  east. 

When  we  turn  to  the  eastern  boundary  of  the 
Delta,  Semitism  meets  us  according  to  the  testimony 
of  the  monuments  in  the  most  evident  manner. 
The  principal  region  of  it  comprehends  the  country 
to  the  east  of  the  Tanitic  branch  of  the  Nile,  in 
which  were  situated  the  three  Lower  Egyptian 
nomes  VIII.,  XIV.,  and  XX.  The  capital  of  the 
fourteenth  nome,  the  town  of  Tanis,  which  gave 
its  name  to  the  branch  of  the  Nile  which  runs  by 
it,  bore  the  foreign  designation  Zar,  Zal,  and  even 
in  the  plural  Zaru,  as  if  it  were  to  be  translated  '  the 
town  of  Zar.'  The  name  Tanis,  which  was  given 
to  it  by  the  Greeks,  is  to  be  carried  back  to  another 
designation  of  it,  namely  to  the  Egyptian  form  Zean, 
Zoan.  It  is  the  same  name  which  we  meet  with 
5 


QQ  TEE   TRUE  STORY  OF 

in  Holy  Scripture  as  Zoan,  which  was  built  seven 
years  later  than  Hebron ;  (Numbers  xiii.  23.)  The 
town  of  Tanis  is  everywhere  in  the  Egyptian 
inscriptions  designated  as  an  essentially  foreign 
town,  the  inhabitants  of  which  are  represented  '  as 
the  people  in  the  eastern  border  lands.'  The  east- 
ern border  land  is  however  nothing  else  than  the 
ordinary  designation  of  what  was  later  the  Tanaitic 
nome,  which,  although  not  often,  appears  in  the 
list  of  nomes  under  the  denomination  of  Ta  mazor, 
that  is,  '  the  fortified  land,'  in  which  may  easily  be 
recognized  the  long-sought  most  ancient  form  of 
the  Hebrew  name  for  Egypt,  Mazor  or  Misraim. 

On  the  granite  memorial  stone  of  the  year  400, 
of  the  era  of  king  Nubti,  or  Nub,  which  was  dis- 
covered in  Tanis,  and  whose  designation  of  the 
year  to  this  day  puzzles  the  heads  of  the  learned, 
there  appears  '  a  governor  of  the  fortress,'  Zal,  who 
besides  this  office  enjoyed  the  title  of  '  governor  of 
the  foreign  peoples.'  In  this  example  also  there  is 
question  of  inhabitants  of  foreign  origin  in  that  por- 
tion of  the  Egyptian  Delta  which  we  have  mentioned. 

The  papyrus  rolls  of  the  time  of  the  nineteenth 
dynasty  with  a  certain  preference  busy  themselves 
with  this  town,  which,  besides  the  two  names  we 
have  mentioned,  bore  also  a  third,  Pi-ramses,  that 
is  the  '  town  of  Ramses.'     About  the  origin  of  this 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  67 

name,  and  about  the  identity  of  the  town  Ramses 
with  the  biblical  Ramses,  w'e  will  further  on  collect 
together  what  is  necessary  to  elucidate  the  subject. 
With  reference  to  this  question,  the  papyrus  rolls 
to  which  we  have  alluded  mention  a  number  of 
lakes  and  waters,  situated  in  the  neighborhood  of 
the  foreign  town  Zal,  whose  peculiar  designations 
at  once  remind  us  of  their  Semitic  origin.  I  will 
mention  as  an  example  of  the  names  of  waters  rich 
in  fish  and  birds — the  Shaanau,  Putra,  Nachal,  Pu- 
harta  or  Puharat.  The  marshes  and  lakes  rich  in 
water-plants,  which  at  this  day  are  known  by  the 
name  of  Birket  Menzaleh,  were  then  called  by  the 
name  common  to  all  these  waters,  Sufi  (or  with  the 
Egyptian  article,  Pa-sufi,  which  is  the  same  as  '  the 
Sufi'),  which  word  completely  agrees  with  the 
Hebrew  Suf.  The  interpreters  generally  under- 
stand this  word  in  the  sense  of  rushes  or  a  rushy 
country,  while  in  old  Egj^ptian  it  almost  completely 
answers  to  a  water  rich  in  papyrus  plants. 

To  the  east  of  the  Tanaitic  nome,  or  the  '  Eastern 
border  land,'  another  nome  was  situated  on  the 
sandy  banks  of  the  Pelusiac  branch  of  the  Nile, 
the  eighth  in  the  general  enumeration  of  the  Egyp- 
tian nomes,  which  the  inscriptions  represent  under 
the  designation  of  the  'point  of  the  east.'  The 
capital  of  the  nome  we  have  mentioned  bore   the 


(38  THE    TRUE  STORY  OF 

name  Pi-tom,  that  is,  '  the  town  of  the  sungod 
Tom,'  in  which  we  must  immediately  recognize  the 
Pithom  of  the  Bible.  The  town  occupied  a  central 
situation  of  the  district,  whose  name  also  must  be 
referred  to  a  foreign  origin.  It  is  the  district  Suko, 
or  Sukot,  the  Succoth  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  at  the 
exodus  of  the  children  of  Israel  out  of  Egypt,  the 
meaning  of  which,  '  tent,'  or  '  tent  camp,'  can  be 
only  established  by  the  help  of  the  Semitic.  Such 
a  designation  is  not  extraordinary  for  a  district 
whose  natural  peculiarity  quite  answers  to  the 
meaning  of  the  name,  since  it  embraces  places  with 
meadows,  the  property  of  pharaoh,  on  which  the 
wandering  Bedouins  of  the  eastern  desert  pitched 
their  tents  to  afford  necessary  food  for  their  cattle. 
Even  as  late  as  the  Grseco-Roman  times  of  Egyp- 
tian history  appears  the  designation  '  tents ; '  and 
tent-camp  (Scense)  is  also  applied  to  places  where 
they  were  accustomed  to  pitch  their  camp  of  tents. 
The  site  of  the  town  Pitom  is  on  the  monuments 
frequently  more  closely  defined  by  the  important 
designation  'at  the  entrance  of  the  east,'  'at  the 
eastern  entrance,'  namely  from  the  desert  into 
Egypt.  A  piece  of  water  in  the  neighborhood  of 
the  town  received  again  a  name  borrowed  not 
from  the  Egyptian,  but  Semitic  language,  namely, 
Charma,  or  Charoma,  which  means  '  the  piercing.' 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  69 

To  return  once  more  to  Sukot,  we  must  remind 
the  reader  that  the  children  of  Israel  in  their 
journey  out  from  the  town  Ramses  pitched  their 
first  camp  in  the  country  called  '  the  tents.'  On 
the  second  day  they  reached  in  their  wanderings 
th3  place  to  which  the  Bible  gives  the  name  of 
Etham.  I  have  elsewhere  proved  that  this  place 
also,  according  to  Egyptian  testimony,  was  either 
in  the  country  of  Sukot,  or  at  least  in  its  close 
neighborhood.  It  is  the  place  called  Chetam,  on 
various  occasions,  in  the  hieratic  papyrus  rolls,  the 
meaning  of  which,  '  a  shut-up  place,  fortress,'  com- 
pletely agrees  with  the  Hebrew  Etham.  We  shall 
have  the  opportunity  of  returning  to  this  Chetam- 
Etham  when  we  describe  the  exodus  of  the  chil- 
dren of  Israel. 

In  the  same  nome,  the  eighth  of  the  description 
on  the  monuments,  and  the  same  which  the  Greeks 
and  Romans  used  to  call  the  Sethroitic,  lay  without 
doubt  that  most  important  town,  which  became  the 
turning-point  in  the  following  history,  the  town 
Hauar,  the  literal  interpretation  of  which  is  '  the 
house  of  the  leg'  (uar).  In  a  particular  place  in 
the  Manethonian  description  of  the  dominion  of  the 
foreigners,  the  so-called  Hyksos  kings,  which  has 
fortunately  been  preserved  in  an  extract  of  the 
Jewish  historian  Josephus,  there  occurs  a  mention 


70  THE  TRUE  STORY  OF 

of  the  same  name.  Manetho  names  the  town 
Auaris  —  and  incidentally  deduces  its  origin  from 
a  religious  tradition.  A  closer  examination  of  the 
nome  with  its  towns,  as  they  are  described  to  us  in 
the  different  more  or  less  detailed  and  well-arranged 
lists  on  the  monuments  of  the  Ptolemies,  renders 
it  probable  that  other  places  also  of  the  land  of 
Egypt  bore  the  name  of  Hauar,  and  particularly 
those  which  in  their  Serapeums,  that  is,  in  the 
temples  of  the  dead,  dedicated  to  the  benefactor 
of  the  land,  Osiris,  carefully  preserved  the  legs  of 
the  god  as  holy  relics.  Thus  was  named,  for  exam- 
ple, the  capital  of  the  third  Lower  Egyptian  nome, 
or  the  Libyan,  with  a  name  added,  Hauar-ament, 
that  is,  '  the  town  of  the  right  leg.'  The  great 
inscription,  so  important  for  a  know^ledge  of  the 
land  of  Egypt,  on  the  wall  of  the  most  holy  place 
in  the  middle  of  the  temple  of  Edfou  (Apollinopolis 
Magna),  completely  confirms  the  statement  that 
the  inliabitants  of  that  town  of  the  Libyan  nome, 
'  worshipped  this  leg  in  one  of  the  temples  dedi- 
cated to  the  Apis  bull.'  We  may,  therefore,  with 
complete  justice,  maintain  that  the  name  also  of  the 
town  Avaris,  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  Delta,  was 
connected  with  this  peculiar  worship  of  the  leg  of 
Osiris.  Lastly,  it  is  not  difficult  to  recognize  the 
left  leg  of  the  god,  because  of  the  evident  refer- 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  71 

ence  to  the  peculiar  situation  of  the  arms  of  the 
Nile,  which  was  well  known  to  be  considered  as 
another  form  and  manifestation  of  Osiris.  After 
the  stream  has  divided  itself  at  the  point  of  the 
Delta,  into  a  fork  in  the  neighborhood  of  a  place 
called  Kerkasorus  (this  designation  seems  to  have 
the  meaning  of  split,  '  Kerk,'  of  Osiris),  so  as  to 
form  two  main  arms,  or,  as  the  Egyptians  were 
accustomed  to  say,  legs,  the  Canopic  to  the  west, 
and  the  Pelusiac  to  the  east,  the  western  arm  was 
considered  as  the  right  leg  of  Osiris,  and  the  Pelu- 
siac on  the  contrary  as  the  left  leg  of  the  god.  The 
towns  situated  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  mouth 
were  naturally  considered  as  peculiar  Osiris  cities, 
in  whose  holy  of  holies  the  legs  of  that  god  played 
so  peculiar  a  part.  By  this  method  of  understand- 
ing it  the  saga  finds  its  full  explanation. 

The  town  Hauar  Avaris,  with  which  we  are  at 
this  moment  occupied,  lay,  as  we  said,  to  the  east 
of  the  Pelusiac  branch  of  the  Nile,  with  which, 
according  to  all  probability,  it  was  connected  by  a 
canal,  if  the  theory  should  not  be  accepted  that  it 
was  placed  directly  on  the  shore  of  the  branch  of 
the  Nile  at  its  mouth,  when  the  river  had  become 
very  broad.  By  a  gradual  silting  up  of  this  branch 
in  the  course  of  thousands  of  ^'ears,  the  restitution 
of  the  ancient  bed  of  the  river,  and  the  right  deter- 


72  THE  TRUE  STORY  OF 

mination  of  the  situation  of  the  towns  on  its  banks, 
has  become  so  difficult  a  task,  that  we  can  have  no 
hope  of  finding  anywhere  the  site  of  the  Hyksos 
town  Avaris,  which  •  has  disappeared,  unless  some 
very  fortunate  accident  should  bring  about  its 
discovery.  But  that  Hauar  must  in  any  case  be 
sought  in  the  neighborhood  of  a  lake  is  taught  us 
in  the  most  positive  manner  by  the  much  cited 
inscription  in  the  tomb  at  El-kab  of  the  navigator 
Aahmes,  the  faithful  servant  of  the  pharaoh  who, 
in  the  history  of  his  life,  relates  how  he  came  there, 
when  the  Egyptian  fleet  was  engaged  in  fighting 
the  foreign  enemies  in  the  waters  Pa-zetku,  or 
Zeku,  of  the  town  of  Hauar.  This  name  also,  in 
spite  of  the  Egyptian  article  placed  before  it,  has 
a  Semitic  appearance,  so  that  -I  should  not  hesitate 
to  compare  it  with  corresponding  roots  of  Semitic 
languages. 

Another  place  situated  on  the  same  territory  of 
the  Sethroite  nome,  bears  on  the  monuments  a 
purely  Semitic  name,  Maktol,  or  Magdol ;  this  is 
nothing  else  than  the  Hebrew  Migdol,  with  the 
meaning  of  a  '  town,'  or  fortress,  out  of  which  the 
Greeks  formed  on  their  side  the  well-sounding^ 
name  Magdolon.  That  the  ancient  Egyptians  were 
well  acquainted  with  the  meaning  of  this  word, 
which  was   foreign  to   their  language,   is   conclu- 


THE  EXODUS  OF  ISRAEL.  73 

sively  proved  by  the  masculine  article  being  placed 
before  it,  and  the  sign  of  a  wall  which  was  added 
to  the  foreign  word  when  written  in  Egyptian. 
The  site  of  this  Migdol,  of  which  mention  is  made 
in  the  Bible,  not  only  in  the  description  of  the 
exodus  of  the  Jews  out  of  Egypt,  but  also  in 
occasional  passages,  was  distinctly  stated  to  be  at 
one  of  the  most  northern  points  of  the  inhabited 
country  of  the  Egyptians  ;  and  as  it  also  bore  on 
the  monuments  the  native  name  of  Samut,  must 
be  sought  in  the  heaps  of  rubbish  at  Tell-es-Samut 
on  the  eastern  side  of  Lake  Menzaleh.  With  this 
fortress  Migdol,  between  which  and  the  sea  King 
*  Ramses  III.  once  tarried  with  a  portion  of  his 
infantry,  as  a  not  inactive  witness  of  the  victory 
of  his  Egyptian  fleet  over  the  confederated  sea- 
faring people  of  the  islands  and  coasts  of  the  Medi- 
terranean, the  list  of  defences,  which  were  intended 
to  protect  the  country  on  the  east,  is  not  yet  closed. 
There  lay  in  the  direction  of  the  north-east,  on  the 
western  border  of  the  so-called  Lake  Sirbonis,  an 
important  place  for  the  defence  of  the  frontier, 
called  Anbu,  that  is  '  the  Avail,'  '  the  circumvalla- 
tion.'  It  is  frequently  mentioned  by  the  ancients, 
not  under  its  Egyptian  appellation,  but  in  the  form 
of  a  translation.  The  Hebrews  call  it  Shur,  that 
is  '  the  wall,'  and  the  Greeks  '  to  Gerrhon,'  or  '  ta 


74  THE  TRUE  STORY  OF 

Gerrha,'  which  means  '  the  fences,'  or  '  enclosures.'' 
This  remark  will  at  a  stroke  remove  all  difficulties 
which  have  hitherto  existed  with  reference  to  the 
origin  of  this  word,  which  in  spite  of  difference  in 
sound  nevertheless  refers  to  one  and  the  same 
place. 

Whoever  travelled  eastwards  from  Egypt  to  leave 
the  country,  was  obliged  to  pass  the  place  called 
'  the  walls,'  before  he  was  allowed  to  enter  the 
road  of  the  Philistines,  as  it  is  called  in  Holy  Writ, 
on  his  further  journey.  An  Egyptian  garrison, 
under  the  command  of  a  captain,  guarded  the  pas- 
sage through  the  fortress,  which  only  opened  and 
closed  on  the  suspicious  wanderer  if  he  was  fur- 
nished with  a  permission  from  the  royal  authorities. 
Anbu-Shur-Gerrhon  was  also  the  first  stopping- 
place  on  the  great  military  road,  Avhich  led  from  the 
Delta  by  Chetam-Etham  and  Migdol  to  the  desert 
of  Shur.  From  Anbu,  passing  by  the  fortress  of 
Uit,  in  the  land  of  Hazi,  or  Hazion  (Kassiotis  of 
the  ancients),  the  traveller  reached  the  tower,  or 
Bechen,  of  Aanecht  (Ostrakene),  where  occurred 
the  boundary  of  the  countries  of  Kemi  and  Zaha. 
On  the  foreign  territory  of  the  last-named  place  the 
traveller  reached,  always  passing  along  the  coast 
of  the  sea,  the  place  Ab-sakabu  (having  the  same 
meaning  in  Semitic  as  Rhinokolura,  or  Rhinokorura 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  75 

with  the  Greeks,  namely,  '  the  place  of  the  mutila- 
tion of  the  noses '),  and  at  length  reached  the 
country  of  the  inhabitants  living  on  the  borders  of 
Palestine. 

Thus  there  lay  in  the  neighborhood  of  Mendes, 
perhaps  even  in  Mendes  itself,  a  fortified  place 
called  '  the  fortress  of  Azaba,'  the  last  part  of  which 
does  not  belong  to  the  Egyptian  tongue  but  to  a 
Semitic  stock.  This  is  the  fortress  of  Ozaeb,  in 
Hebrew  —  i.e.  'of  the  idol.'  Another  well-known 
town,  in  the  account  of  the  war  of  the  first  Menep- 
tah  against  the  Libyan  groups  of  peoples  on  the 
east  side  of  the  Delta,  bore  the  appellation  Pi- 
bailos,  '  the  town  Bailos '  (Greek,  Byblos  ;  Coptish, 
Phelbes),  the  Semitic  origin  of  which  is  made  clear 
by  it^  evident  relationship  with  the  Hebrew,  Balas 
(the  mulberry).  In  its  neighborhood  was  the  lake 
Shakana,  also  with  a  non-Egyptian  name,  the 
meaning  of  which  is  only  explained  by  the  Semitic 
root  shakan  —  '  to  settle  down,  to  live,  to  be  neigh- 
bors to.'  More  inland,  in  the  middle  of  the  same 
region  of  the  Delta,  the  traveller  met,  to  the  west 
of  the  Athribitic  nome,  the  town  Kahani,  a  name 
with  a  foreign  Semitic  sound,  which  recalls  at  once 
the  Hebrew  hohen^  '  priests.'  In  this  way  it  is 
not  difficult  by  comparative  philology  to  point  out 
other    examples    of   the    connection    between    the 


76  THE   TRUE  STORY  OF 

names  of  Egyptian  settlements  and  towns  and  ancient 
Semitic  inhabitants. 

But  the  presence  of  Semitic  natives  on  the  Egyp- 
tian land  is  shown  from  other  sources,  whether  they 
were  planted  pure  and  unmixed  on  the  soil,  or  were 
led  by  time  and  circumstances  to  seek  their  bread 
there.  The  memorial  stones  found  in  the  cities  of 
the  dead  in  Ancient  Egypt,  and  the  coffins  and  the 
rolls  of  papyrus,  show  unmistakably  the  presence 
of  Semitic  persons,  who  were  settled  in  the  valley 
of  the  Nile,  and  had,  so  to  speak,  obtained  the.  rights 
of  citizenship;  as  also,  on  the  other  side,  the  incli- 
nation of  the  Egyptians  to  give  to  their  children 
Semitic,  or,  by  a  siiigular  mixture,  half  Egyptian 
and  half  Semitic  names. 

The  inclination  of  the  Egyptian  mind  to  Semitic 
modes  of  life  must,  in  my  opinion,  be  explained  from 
their  having  long  lived  together,  and  from  very 
early  existing  mutual  relations  of  the  Egyptian  and 
Semitic  races.  Above  all  things  else,  it  must  not 
be  lost  sight  of  that  the  trade  relations,  which  ex- 
tended from  the  Nile  to  the  Euphrates,  had  con- 
tributed to  introduce  into  Egypt  foreign  expressions 
for  many  products  of  the  soil  and  foreign  works  of 
art.  The  animal  world  also,  when  they  had  not 
their  home  in  the  valley  of  the  Nile,  brought  their 
contributions  of  words  borrowed  from  the  Semitic  — 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  77 

as,  '  sns '  for  a  horse,  '  kamal '  for  a  camel,  '  abir '  for 
a  particular  kind  of  ox.  The  endeavor  to  pay  court, 
in  the  most  open  manner,  to  whatever  was  Semitic, 
became,  in  the  time  of  the  nineteenth  and  twentieth 
dynasties,  a  really  absurd  mania.  They  introduced 
Semitic  words  in  place  of  Egyptian  words  already 
existing  in  their  own  mother-tongue,  and  in  the 
writing  of  their  country  ;  and  turned  even  Egyptian 
words  into  Semitic,  by  transposition  of  the  syllables, 
if  we  may  use  such  an  expression.  But  the  worst 
of  it  was  that  the  most  educated  and  best  informed 
portion  of  the  Egyptian  people,  the  world  of  priests 
and  scribes,  found  an  especial  pleasure  in  decking 
their  history  with  Semitic  words,  which  they  used 
to  employ  in  the  place  of  good  Egyptian  expressions. 
They  used  Semitic  expressions  like  the  following : 
rosh,  '  head ' ;  sar,  '  a  king ' ;  belt,  '  a  house  '  ;  bab, 
'  a  door ' ;  bir,  '  a  spring  ' ;  birkata,  '  a  lake  ' ;  ketem, 
'  gold  ' ;  shalom,  '  to  greet ' ;  rom,  '  to  be  high '  ; 
barak,  '  to  bless ' ;  and  many  others. 

We  must  here,  on  this  subject,  not  forget  a  re- 
mark which,  when  ;tvell  understood,  is  calculated  to 
explain  in  some  degree  this  striking  fact,  and  to 
excuse  what  seems  worthy  of  blame  in  this  mania 
for  the  introduction  of  foreign  words  into  the 
mother-tongue.  In  the  east'  of  the  lowlands,  in 
those   countries  of  which  we  have  spoken  above, 


78  THE   TRUE  STORY  OF 

and  whose  central  point  was  the  cities  of  Ramses  and 
Pitom,  the  Semitic  immigration  had  extended  so 
widely,  and  had  reached  such  a  preponderance  over 
the  Egyptian  population,  that,  in  the  course  of 
centuries,  a  gradual  blending  of  both  nations  took 
place.  It  led  to  the  formation  of  a  mixed  people, 
traces  of  which  have  been  preserved  unchanged  in 
tliQse  places  to  the  present  day.  The  neighboring 
Egyptians,  weaker  in  numbers,  found  it  convenient 
not  only  to  adopt  the  manners  and  usages  of  the 
Semites,  but  began  to  take  an  inclination  to  the 
worship  of  foreign  idols,  and  to  enrich  their  own 
divine  lore  with  new  and  hitherto  unknown  heavenly 
forms  of  foreign  origin.  At  the  head  of  all  stood, 
half  Egyptian  and  half  Semitic,  the  godhead  of  Set 
or  Sutech,  with  the  additional  name  Nub,*  'gold,' 
who  was  considered  universally  as  the  representa- 
tive and  king  of  the  foreign  deities  in  the  land  of 
Mazour.  According  to  his  essence,  a  most  ancient 
Egyptian  creation,  Set,  at  the  same  time  gradually 
became  the  representative  of  all  foreign  countries  — 
the  god  of  the  foreigners. 

*  It  is  a  very  remarkable  fact,  that,  from  the  times  of  the 
highest  antiquity  in  Eastern  representations,  the  curse  of  the 
Typhonic  deities  adheres  to  gold.  According  to  a  Greek  tradi- 
tion (Plutarch  on  Isis  and  Osiris,  p.  30),  at  the  sacrificial  feast  of 
Helios  the  worshippers  of  the  god  were  directed  to  carry  no  gold 
about  their  persons,  just  as  in  the  present  day  the  followers  of 
Mohammed  take  off  all  gold  trinkets  before  they  go  through  the 
appointed  prayers. 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  79 

If  I  mention  the  names  of  Baal  and  Astarta, 
which  we  so  frequently  meet  with  in  the  inscrip- 
tions, it  is  scarcely  necessary  to  state  that  both 
have  their  origin  in  the  Phoenician  divine  lore.  As 
in  Sidon,  so  in  Memphis,  the  warlike  Astarta  (who 
in  the  Egyptian  monuments  of  a  later  time  was 
represented  as  a  lion-headed  goddess,  guiding  with 
her  own  hand  her  team  of  horses  yoked  to  the 
chariot  of  war)  had  her  own  temple  ;  and  we  have 
proof  that  Ramses  II.  raised  a  particular  temple  to 
her  houor  and  her  service  on  the  lonely  shore  of 
the  Mediterranean,  near  the  Lake  Sirbonis. 

Less  frequently  occurring  on  the  monuments  than 
the  previously  mentioned  representatives  of  the 
Semitic  divinities,  the  fierce  Reshpu  still  had  his 
place  in  the  Egyptian  host  of  heaven.  He  was 
called  '  the  end  of  long  times,  the  king  of  eternity, 
the  lord  of  strength  in  the  midst  of  the  host  of 
gods  ; '  and  the  goddess,  Kadosh,  that  is  '  the  holy,' 
whose  name  already  indicates  the  peculiar  character 
of  her  heavenly  existence.  The  frolicsome  Bes,  or 
Bas,  also,  the  chief  of  song  and  of  music,  of  pleasures, 
and  all  social  amusements,  must  be  mentioned  in  this 
place,  since  he  was,  according  to  his  origin,  a  pure 
child  of  the  Semitic  race  of  the  Arabs.  His  name,  in 
their  language,  means  Lynx  and  Cat ;  and  we  think 
we  are  not  carrying  the  comparison  too  far  if  we 


igO  THE  TRUE  STORY  OF 

at  once  place  by  his  side  tlie  cat-headed  goddess, 
the  protectress  of  the  town  of  Bubastus,  the  much 
venerated  lissom  Bast.  If  we  also  mention  that 
the  Phoenician  Onka,  and  the  Syrian  Anait,  or 
Anaitis,  belong  to  those  heavenly  beings  whose 
names  and  forms  are  again  found  in  the  Egyp- 
tian divine  world,  where  they  take  their  places 
under  the  names  of  Anka  and  Anta,  then  we  have 
exhausted  the  principal  representatives  of  the 
Semitic  deities  in  the  old  Egyptian  theology. 

Perhaps  the  influence  of  the  Semitic  neighbor- 
hood on  Egyptian  matters  might  be  proved  from 
looking  at  it  in  a  new  point  of  view.  In  this  case 
a  very  remarkable  and  striking  fact  will  bear  con- 
vincing evidence  in  favor  of  our  views.  We  allude 
here  to  the  peculiar  era,  found  nowhere  else,  which 
an  Egyptian  courtier  once  used,  in  the  fourteenth 
century  before  Christ,  to  indicate  the  year  of  the 
execution  of  an  inscription.  I  refer  to  the  cele- 
brated memorial  stone  of  Tanis,  erected  in  the  reign 
of  the  second  Ramses. 

Contrary  to  the  custom  and  usage,  of  reckoning 
time  b}^  the  day,  month,  and  year  of  the  reigning 
king,  the  stone  of  Tanis  offers  us  the  only  example 
as  yet  discovered,  which,  according  to  appearances, 
resorts  to  a  foreign  and  not  an  Egyptian  mode  of 
reckoning  time.     There  is  here  question  of  the  year 


THE  EXODUS  OF  ISRAEL.  81 

400  of  king  Nub,  a  prince  belonging  to  the  foreign 
lords  of  the  Hyksos.  In  other  words,  if  we  do  not 
misunderstand  the  main  issue,  in  the  town  of  Tanis, 
whose  inhabitants  for  the  most  part  belonged  to 
Semitic  races,  this  mode  of  reckoning  was  in  such 
general  use  that  the  person  who  raised  the  memo- 
rial-stone thought  it  nothing  extraordinary  to  em- 
ploy it  as  a  mode  of  reckoning  time  in  the  beautifully 
engraved  inscription  on  granite  which  was  exhibited 
before  all  eyes  in  a  temple.  There  can  hardly  be  a 
stronger  proof  of  the  influence  of  Semitic  manners 
on  the  Egyptian  spirit  and  customs  than  the  testi- 
mony we  have  brought  forward  of  the  stone  of 
Tanis.  A  preponderating  and  almost  irresistible 
power  of  Semitism  lies  hidden  here,  the  importance 
of  which  it  is  as  well  to  remark  upon  before  we 
undertake  to  describe  the  history  of  the  irruption 
of  the  foreigners  into  Egypt,  and  the  consequences 
connected  with  it  on  the  condition  of  the  empire. 
Taking  into  consideration  all  this  testimony,  which 
seems  to  speak  in  favor  of  our  view  of  the  impor- 
tance of  Semitic  influence  on  Egyptian  relations,  we 
will  question  the  monuments  for  confirmation  of  the 
presence  of  Semitic  races  and  families  on  Egyptian 
soil.  We  will  direct  our  attention  to  the  eastern 
provinces  of  the  Delta,  which  offered  the  only 
entrance  to  wanderers  from  the  east. 
6 


82  THE   TRUE  STORY  OF 

As  an  answer,  we  insert  the -literal  translation  of 
a  circular,  whicli  was  composed  in  the  course  of  the 
nineteenth  dynasty,  and  with  the  view  on  the  part 
of  the  writer  to  give  a  report  to  his  superior  on  the 
admission  of  foreign  immigrants  to  Egyptian  soil. 

"I  will  now  pass  to  something  else  which  will 
give  satisfaction  to  the  heart  of  my  lord  (namely 
to  give  him  an  account  of  it),  that  we  have  per- 
mitted the  races  of  the  Shasu  of  the  land  of  Aduma 
(Edom)  to  pass  through  the  fortress  Chetam  (Etham) 
of  Mineptah-Hotephimaat  —  Life,  weal,  and  health 
to  him — which  is  situated  in  the  land  of  Sukot  near 
the  lakes  of  the  town  Pitom  of  King  Minex)ta]i-IIo- 
tephimaat,  which  is  situated  in  the  land  of  Sukot, 
to  nourish  themselves  and  to  nourish  their  cattle 
on  the  property  of  Pharaoh,  who  is  a  good  sun 
for  all  nations." 

In  this  extremely  important  document  of  the  time 
of  the  first  Mineptah,  the  son  of  Ramses  II.,  there 
is  question  of  the  races  of  the  sons  of  the  desert,  or 
to  use  the  Egyptian  name  for  these,  the  races  of  the 
Shasu,  in  which  science  has  for  a  long  time  and  wjth 
perfect  certainty  recognized  the  Bedouins  of  the 
highest  antiquity.  They  inhabited  the  great  desert 
between  Egypt  and  the  land  of  Canaan,  and  ex- 
tended their  wanderings  sometimes  as  far  as  the  river 
Euphrates.    According  to  the  monuments,  the  Shasu 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  83 

belonged  to  the  great  race  of  the  Amu,  of  which 
they  were  the  head  representatives.  In  the  times 
of  the  first  Seti,  the  father  of  Ramses  II.,  the  laud 
passed  through  by  the  Shasu  began  at  the  fortress 
Zal  Tanis,  and  stretched  towards  the  east  as  far  as 
the  hill-town  '  of  Canana,'  in  Wady  Araba  to  the 
south  of  the  Dead  Sea,  which  Seti  I.  took  hj  storm 
in  his  campaign  against  the  Bedouins.  The  author 
of  the  writing  designates  those  Shasu  who  were  per- 
mitted by  superior  authority  to  enter  the  Egyptian 
kingdom,  as  the  Shasu  of  the  land  of  Aduma,  which 
was  the  Edom  of  the  Bible  and  the  land  of  Idumsea 
of  later  times.  The  tribes  of  the  Shasu,  who  are 
referred  to  in  the  circular  we  have  quoted,  were 
therefore  sufficiently  designated  as  inhabitants  of 
the  land  of  Edom.  The  position  of  these  last  is 
more  closely  defined  in  Holy  Writ  as  the  moun- 
tainous country  of  Seir. 

On  this  occasion  we  have  the  satisfaction  to 
declare  once  again  the  complete  agreement  of  the 
information  on  the  monuments  with  the  statements 
of  Holy  Writ.  In  that  place  of  the  Harris  papyrus, 
in  which  mention  is  made  of  the  campaigns  of  king 
Ramses  III.  against  these  very  Shasu,  an  impor- 
tant observation  is  introduced  into  the  speech  of 
the  king.  He  speaks  thus:  'ari-a  sek  Sair-u  em 
mahaut  Sasu ; '  that  is, '  I  annihilated  the  Sair  among 


84  THE  TRUE  STORY  OF 

the  tribes  of  the  Shasu.'  The  name  of  Sair  answers 
letter  for  letter  with  the  Hebrew  word  Seir.  The 
comparison  must  appear  all  the  more  founded,  as 
the  Egyptian  writer  has  appended  to  the  written 
words  of  the  name  the  sign  for  dumbness,  which  is 
the  hieroglyphic  for  a  child,  as  if  he  wished  by  this 
to  prove  his  knowledge  of  the  Semitic  language,  in 
which  Sa'ir  means  '  the  little  one.'  The  Se'irites, 
the  children  of  Se'ir,  were  dwellers  in  caves,  and 
original  inhabitants  of  the  mountain  range  of  Se'ir. 
At  a  later  period,  hunted  down  by  the  children  of 
Esau,  they  yielded  their  land  to  the  conquerors,  to 
whom  the  appellation  of  Se'irites,  as  inhabitants  of 
the  Se'ir  range,  was  afterwards  transferred. 

With  the  help  of  this  knowledge  beforehand,  it  is 
no  longer  difficult  to  assign  their  true  place  to  the 
Shasu  on  the  theatre  of  events  which  are  the  object 
of  our  inquiry.  The  land  of  Edom  and  the  neigh- 
boring hill-country  was  the  home  of  the  principal 
races  of  the  Shasu,  which  in  the  fifteenth  and  six- 
teenth centuries  before  our  era  left  their  mountains 
to  fall  upon  Egypt  with  weapons  in  their  hands,  or 
in  a  friendly  manner  followed  by  their  flocks  and 
herds  to  beg  sustenance  for  themselves  and  their 
cattle,  and  to  seek  an  entrance  into  the  rich  pas- 
tures of  the  land  of  Succoth.  Manifestly  the  calls 
of  hunger  drove  them  to  the  rich  corn  lands  of  the 


TnE  EXODUS  OF  ISRAEL.  85 

blessed  Delta,  where  they  took  up  their  abode  in 
huts  near  thgir  brethren  of  the  same  race,  who  had 
become  settled  inhabitants. 

As  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  town  of  Ramses 
and  the  place  Pitom  the  Semitic  population  had 
formed  the  main  foundation  of  the  inhabitants  from 
hoar  antiquity,  and  as  subjects  of  the  pharaoh  had 
been  obedient  to  the  laws  of  the  empire,  so  in  the 
lapse  of  time,  in  another  part  of  the  eastern  prov- 
inces, in  the  country  of  Pibailos  (the  Bilbeis  of 
modern  maps),  close  on  the  edge  of  the  desert  and 
in  sight  of  the  cultivated  land,  disagreeable  neigh- 
bors had  fixed  themselves  and  pitched  their  tents 
where  they  found  pasture  for  their  cattle.  These 
were  Bedouins,  who  according  to  all  probability 
found  their  way  from  the  dreary  desert  through  the 
difficult  paths  of  the  great  papyrus  marsh  near  the 
present  town  of  Suez  in  a  north-western  direction, 
to  find  the  object  of  their  wandering  near  the  town 
of  Pibailos.  Mineptah  I.,  the  son  and  successor  of 
Ramses  II.,  gives  on  the  monument  of  his  victories 
in  Karnak  a  graphic  account  of  the  dangerous 
character  of  these  unbidden  guests  to  whom,  from 
Pibailos  to  On  and  Memphis,  the  way  lay  open, 
without  the  kings  his  predecessors  having  found  it 
worth  while  to  establish  fortresses,  to  bar  the  way 
of  these  strangers  to  the  most  important  cities  of 


86  THE  TRUE  STORY  OF 

the  lower  country.  When  the  pharaoh  we  have 
named  succeeded  to  the  throne  of  his  fathers,  the 
danger  of  a  sudden  irruption  on  this  side  appeared 
all  the  more  threatening,  because  on  the  other  side 
the  Libyans,  the  western  neighbors  of  the  Egyp- 
tians, with  their  allies  suddenly  passed  the  frontiers 
of  Kemi,  and  extended  their  plundering  raids  into 
the  heart  of  the  inhabited  and  cultivated  western 
nomes  of  the  Delta.  According  to  the  report  of 
the  inscription  of  his  victories  (unfortunately  in- 
jured by  the  lesion  of  the  upper  part),  Mineptah 
I.  saw  himself  obliged  to  take  precautions  for  the 
safety  of  the  land.  For  the  protection  of  the  east- 
ern frontier,  the  capitals  On  and  Memphis  were 
provided  with  the  necessary  fortifications,  for  as 
the  cited  inscription  expressly  says,  "  the  foreigners 
had  pitched  their  ahil*  or  tents  before  the  town  of 
Pibailos,  and  the  districts  at  the  lakes  of  Shakana 
to  the  north  of  the  canal  of  the  Heliopolite  nome 
had  remained  unused,  for  they  had  been  abandoned 
to  serve  as  mere  pasture  of  the  herds  because  of  the 
foreigners,  and  had  become  deserted  from  the  time 
of  our  forefathers-!     All  the  kings  of  Upper  Egypt 

♦Again  a  Semitic  word ;  the  Hebrew  Ohil,  with  the  same  meaning. 

t  The  translation  of  this  sentence  presents  a  difficulty  which  I 
can  hardly  think  I  have  solved.  There  can,  however,  be  no 
doubt  of  the  general  meaning,  and  that  the  author  of  the  inscrip- 
tion intended  to  say  what  I  have  pointed  out  in  my  translation. 


THE  EXODUS  OF  ISRAEL.  87 

were  living  in  their  magnificent  buildings,  and  the 
kings  of  Lower  Egypt  enjoyed  peace  in  their  cities. 
All  around  the  order  of  the  land  was  threatened  by 
disturbers.  The  armed  force  was  wanting  in  people 
to  assist  them  to  give  them  an  answer." 

Before  we  cast  a  glance  at  the  neighbors  of  the 
Egyptians  of  the  Delta,  who  carried  on  war  and 
traffic  with  the  inhabitants  of  Kemi,  it  seems  useful 
to  attend  to  a  particular  circumstance,  which  is  not 
without  importance  for  arriving  at  a  right  judgment 
on  Semitism. 

Our  advancing  knowledge  of  the  contents  of  the 
Egyptian  papyri  permits  us,  even  at  the  present 
time,  to  cast  an  intelligent  glance  at  the  administra- 
tion of  the  eastern  provinces,  which  had  for  its  cen- 
tral point  the  town  of  foreigners,  Zoan-Tanis,  in  the 
time  of  the  great  Ramessides  and  their  successors. 
Hence  went  forth  the  commands  of  the  king,  or  of 
the  chief  officials  of  the  king,  relating  to  the  man- 
agement of  business  or  the  regulation  of  trade  with 
'  the  foreign  nations,'  or,  to  use  the  Egyptian  ex- 
pression for  these,  with  the  Pit.  A  portion  of  these 
consisted  of  the  industrious  settled  population  in 
towns  and  villages ;  another  portion  served  in  the 
army,  of  the  pharaoh  as  infantry  and  cavalry,  or  as 
sailors  ;  others  were  used  in  the  public  works,  the 
most  laborious  of  which  were  the  mines  and  quar- 


88  THE  TRUE  STORY  OF 

ries.  Over  each  larger  and  smaller  division  of 
'  foreigners,'  who  with  their  names  and  origin  were 
carried  on  the  list  of  the  royal  archives,  an  official 
was  placed,  the  so-called.  Hir-pit,  or  steward  of  the 
foreigners.  His  next  superior  was  the  captain  of 
the  district,  or  Adon  (here  also  they  used  the  Semitic 
form  for  this  title),  while  as  chief  authority  the  Ab 
of  the  pharaoh  (this  was  the  dignity  which  Joseph 
held),  or  royal  Wezer,  issued  orders  in  the  name  of 
the  ruler.  The  authority  over  the  foreign  people 
lay  in  the  hands  of  particular  bailiffs  (the  so-called 
Mazai),  who  in  the  principal  cities  of  the  land  had 
to  look  after  and  preserve  public  order,  and  who 
were  under  an  Ur,  or  superior,  by  whom  the  carry- 
ing out  of  public  buildings  was  frequently  under- 
taken as  an  additional  duty.  I  pass  over  a  host  of 
other  officials,  who,  in  the  eastern  provinces  of  the 
Delta  as  in  the  rest  of  Egypt,  carried  on  the  admin- 
istration of  the  nomes,  and  I  will  only  mention  that 
frequently  the  foreign  subjects  were  promoted  to 
important  offices  in  connection  with  the  govern- 
ment. They  seem  to  have  been  most  appreciated  as 
the  bearers  of  official  documents  in  the  trade  trans- 
actions between  Egypt  and  the  neighboring  Pales- 
tine: The  chief  seats  of  this  trade,  the  importance 
of  which  is  shown  by  individual  papyri,  besides  the 
frontier  town  of  Ramses,  seem  to  have   been  the 


THE  EXODUS  OF  ISRAEL.  89 

fortified  places  near  the  Mediterranean  sea-coast, 
and  further  inland  to  the  east  the  country  of  the 
Edomites  and  Amorites. 

We  will  embrace  the  opportunity  we  have  long 
desired,  in  this  place  to  consider  the  neighbors  in 
Palestine,  who  continually  carried  on  the  most 
lively  intercourse  with  the  Egyptians  in  old  time, 
and  partially  formed  the  foundation  of  the  foreign 
inhabitants  in  the  eastern  provinces  of  the  Delta. 
In  the  first  rank  stand  the  Char,  or  Chal,  by  which 
name  not  only  a  people  but  the  country  they  inhab- 
ited was  also  known,  namely,  those  parts  of  west- 
ern Asia  lying  on  the  Syrian  coast,  and  before  all 
others  the  land  of  the  Phoenicians.  Richly  laden 
ships  went  and  came  from  the  land  of  Char ;  for  the 
inhabitants  of  Char  carried  on  a  lively  trade  with 
the  Egyptians,  and  seem,  if  we  are  not  to  mistrust 
the  monuments  and  the  rolls  of  the  books,  to  have 
been  a  highly-esteemed  and  respectable  people. 

Even  the  male  and  female  slaves  from  Char  were 
highly  esteemed  as  merchandise,  and  were  procured 
by  distinguished  Egyptians  at  a  high  price,  whether 
for  their  own  houses,  or  for  service  in  the  holy 
dwellings  of  the  Egyptian  gods. 

The  land  of  the  Char  bears  in  the  inscriptions 
another  name,  the  most  ancient  mention  of  which 
is  supported  by  all  the  testimony  we  could  desire^ 


90  TEE   TRUE  STORY  OF 

namely,  by  witnesses  in  the  first  times  of  the  eigh- 
teenth dynasty,  about  the  year  1700  B.  c.  It  is 
always  called  Kefa,  or  Keft,  Kefeth,  Kefthu,  on  the 
monuments.  As  at  a  certain  time  of  Egyptian  his- 
tory, namely,  at  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  the 
first  Seti,  the  territory  of  the  Shasu  extended  as  far 
as  the  town  of  Ramses,  about  a  hundred  years  later, 
the  seats  of  the  people  of  Char,  or  the  Phoenicians, 
were  described  as  '  beginning  with  the  fortress  Zar 
(Tanis  Ramses),  and  extending  to  Aupa,  or  Aup.' 
The  last-mentioned  name  designates  a  place  in  the 
north  of  Palestine,  without  our  being  able  more 
nearly  to  define  its  situation.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  information  is  of  very  great  importance,  that 
these  same  Char  had  extended  their  seats  quite  into 
the  heart  of  the  Tanitic  nome.  We  can,  after  the 
reasons  we  have  given  above,  no  longer  be  surprised* 
that  these  descendants  of  Phoenician  race  consti- 
tuted on  the  eastern  frontier  of  the  Egyptian  em- 
pire the  real  kernel  of  its  fixed,  industrious,  artis- 
tic, and  before  all,  its  sea-faring  and  commercial 
population.  In  their  habits  and  mode  of  life  they 
were  directly  opposed  to  those  wandering  Shasu, 
the  children  of  Esau,  who  traversed  the  deserts, 
and  only  remained  with  their  herds  so  long  on  the 
property  of  pharaoh  as  the  pastures  suited  them  and 
supplied  sustenance  for  themselves  and  their  cattle. 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  91 

The  influence  of  the  settled  Char  on  Egyptian 
life  is  unmistakable  in  a  thousand  details,  for  a 
knowledge  of  which  we  have  to  tbank  the  monu- 
ments, and  particularly  the  little  rolls  of  papyrus. 
Even  the  fortified  town  of  Zoan,  if  we  are  not  com- 
pletely deceived,  seems  to  have  been  a  very  ancient 
habitation  of  the  Phoenicians,  since  as  well  on  the 
water  side  of  it  as  by  land,  Zoan-Tanis  constituted 
at  the  entrance  to  the  Delta  on  the  east,  an  impor- 
tant emporium  of  intercourse  and  trade  with  the 
whole  of  the  rest  of  Egypt.  The  name  of  the  city 
Zor,  used  as  well  as  that  of  Zoan,  reminds  us  too 
much  of  the  celebrated  Zor-Tyrus  in  the  native 
country  of  the  Phoenicians,  for  us  to  leave  it  unno- 
ticed in  an  account  of  the  traces  of  the  Phoenician 
race. 

The  presence  of  the  Char-Phoenicians  in  Egypt 
is,  as  already  observed,  made  known  to  us  in  the 
most  detailed  manner  by  the  inscriptions.  I  have 
already  before  spoken  of  those  Semitic  inhabitants 
who  were  employed  in  Egypt  in  all  sorts  of  official 
service.  To  these  in  the  first  line  belong  the  Phoe- 
nicians, or  Char.  Their  importance  culminates  in 
the  fact  newly  communicated  to  us  by  the  monu- 
ments, that  a  Char-Phoenician,  towards  the  end  of 
the  nineteenth  dynasty,  was  able  to  conquer  the 
throne  and  dominion  over  the  Egyptians. 


92  THE  TRUE  STORY  OF 

The  Char  spoke  their  own  language,  the  Phoenician, 
upon  the  pecuharities  of  which,  in  relation  to  the 
other  Semitic  languages,  the  Phoenician  inscriptions 
that  have  been  hitherto  discovered  have  already 
preserved  plentiful  information.  Of  all  the  lan- 
guages spoken  by  Arab  and  western  Asiatic  nations, 
the  monuments  only  notice  the  language  of  the 
Char,  with  a  clear  reference  to  its  importance  as  the 
most  cultivated  representative  of  all  the  others. 
Whoever  lived  in  Egypt  spoke  Egyptian  (the  lan- 
guage of  the  people  of  Kemi)  ;  whoever  stayed  in 
the  south  was  obliged  to  speak  the  language  of  the 
'Nahesi,  or  dark-colored  people ;  while  those  who 
went  northwards  to  the  Asiatic  region  must  have 
been  well  acquainted  with  the  language  of  the  Phoe- 
nicians, in  order  in  some  degree  to  understand  the 
inhabitants  of  the  country. 

The  historical  fact  that  the  Phoenicians  already, 
in  the  most  ancient  times  of  Egyptian  history, 
formed  a  fixed  settled  population  in  the  eastern 
provinces  of  the  Egyptian  empire,  finds  a  kind  of 
confirmation,  or,  if  it  is  preferred,  an  explanation, 
from  a  remarkable  circumstance.  We  mean  the 
presence  of  the  latest  descendants  of  the  old  Phoe- 
nician race  in  the  same  seats  which  their  forefathers 
occupied  thousands  of  years  ago.  At  this  day  the 
traveller  meets  on  the  shores  of  the  Lake  Menza- 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  93 

leh,  near  the  old  towns  and  districts  of  Ramses  and 
Pitom,  a  peculiar  race  of  fishermen  and  sailors,  whose 
manners  and  customs,  whose  historical  traditions, 
however  weak  they  may  be,  and  whose  ideas  on 
religious  matters,  prove  them  to  have  been  strangers 
to  the  real  Egyptians.  The  inhabitants  of  this 
country,  formerly  Christians,  who  call  themselves 
by  the  name  of  Malakin,  were  restless  and  rebellious 
subjects  of  the  Khalifs. 

The  same  inhabitants  of  the  eastern  provinces, 
who  at  this  day  navigate  in  their  barks  the  shallow 
waters  of  Lake  Menzaleh,  and  carry  on  the  fishery 
as  their  chief  business,  are,  as  has  been  said,  the 
descendants  of  the  Phoenician  inhabitants  of  the 
Tanitic  and  Sethroitic  nomes.  These  were  the  peo- 
ple who  ages  ago  gave  to  the  fortified  places  of  their 
Egyptian  lands,  and  to  the  towns  and  villages  which 
they  once  inhabited,  and  to  the  lakes  and  canals  on 
which  they  navigated,  those  Semitic  appellations  by 
which  we  well  know  these  places  from  the  papyrus 
rolls. 

What  most  marks  their  ancient  and  now  forgotten 
origin,  is  their  non-Egyptian  countenance,  so  like 
the  pictures  of  the  Hyksos,  with  broad  cheek-bones, 
and  with  daring  pouting  lips,  which  more  than  any- 
thing else  marks  the  boatmen  of  Lake  Menzaleh 
with  the  stamp  of  a  foreign  origin. 


94    .  THE  TRUE  STORY  OF 

The  history  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  eastern 
provinces  lies  buried  and  forgotten  under  the  rubbish 
heaps  of  thousands  of  years.  And  yet  their  fathers 
were  once  the  lords  of  the  fate  of  Egypt,  before 
whose  rough  strength  the  pharaohs  bowed  them- 
selves powerless,  and  were  obliged  for  centuries  to 
pass  a  furtive  existence  in  the  southern  portions  of 
the  empire.     Set  had  conquered  Osiris. 


THE  EXODUS  OF  ISRAEL.  95 


CHAPTER  VII.      V 

THE  TIME  OF.FOEEIGN  DOMINION. — JOSEPH  IN  EGYPT. 

AccoEDiNG  ,to  the  Manethonian  account  which 
the  Jewish  historian  Josephus  has  preserved  to  us 
by  transcribing  it,  the  Egyptian  Netherlands  were 
at  a  certain  time  overspread  by  a  wild  and  rough 
people,  which  came  from  the  countries  of  the  East, 
overcame  the  native  kings  who  dwelt  there,  and 
took  possession  of  the  whole  country,  without  find- 
ing any  great  opposition  on  the  part  of  the  Egyp- 
tians. The  account  of  it  in  Josephus  is  literally 
as  follows :  — 

*'  There  was  a  king  called  Timaius  (or  Timaos, 
Timios).  In  his  reign,  I  know  not  for  what  reason, 
God  was  unpropitious,  and  people  of  low  origin 
from  the  country  of  the  East  suddenly  attacked  the 
land,  of  which  they  easily  and  without  a  struggle 
gained  possession.  They  overthrew  those  who  ruled 
there,  burned  down  the  cities,  and  laid  waste  the 
temples  of  the  gods.  They  ill-treated  all  the  in- 
habitants, for  they  killed  some,  and  carried  into 
captivity  others,  with  their  wives  and  children. 


96  THE  TRUE  STORY  OF 

"  And  they  made  one  from  the  midst  of  them 
king,  whose  name  was  Salatis  (Saltis,  Silitis).  He 
fixed  his  seat  in  Memphis,  collected  the  taxes  from 
the  upper  and  lower  country,  and  placed  garrisons 
in  the  most  important  places.  But  he  particularly 
fortified  the  eastern  boundary,  for  he  foresaw  that 
the  Assyrians,  then  the  most  powerful  people,  would 
undertake  to  make  an  attack  on  his  kingdom. 

"  When  he  had  found  a  town  very  conveniently 
situated,  in  the  Sethroite  nome  to  the  east  of  the 
Bubastic  branch  of  the  Nile  —  on  the  grounds  of  an 
old  mythical  legend  —  it  was  called  Auaris  —  he 
extended  it,  fortified  it  with  very  strong  walls,  and 
placed  in  it  as  a  garrison  two  hundred  and  forty 
thousand  heavy  armed  troops. 

'*  There  he  betook  himself  in  summer,  partly  to 
watch  over  the  distribution  of  provisions  and  the 
counting  out  their  pay  to  his  army,  and  partly  also 
to  strike  fear  into  foreigners  by  making  his  army 
perform  military  manoeuvres. 

He  died  after  he  had  reigned        .  .  19  years. 

His  successor,  by  name  Bnon  (or  Banon, 

Beon),  reigned 44  years. 

After  him  another,  Apachnan  (or  Apach- 

nas)     .......  36  years,  7  months. 

After  him  Aphobis  (or  Aphophis,  Apo- 

phis,  Aphosis) 61  years. 

And  Annas  (or  Janias,  Jannas,  Anan)  .  60  years,  1  month. 

Last  of  all  Asseth  (or  Aseth,  A&es,  Assis)  49  years,  2  months. 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL:  97 

"  These  six  were  the  first  kings.  They  carried  on 
war  uninterruptedly  with  a  view  to  destroy  the  land 
of  Egypt  to  the  roots. 

''The  whole  people  bore  the  name  of  Hyksos,  that 
is,  'shepherd  kings.'  For  hyh  means  in  the  holy 
language  a  king,  sos  in  the  dialect  of  the  people  a 
shepherd  or  shepherds.  These  syllables,  when  put 
together,  make  the  word  Hyksos.  Some  think  they 
were  Arabs." 

We  will  first  of  all  turn  our  attention  to  the  last 
statement,  because  it  is  of  great  importance  for  the 
fixing  of  the  origin  of  this  obscure  people.  If  the 
kind  reader  will  now  recall  to  his  thoughts  what  we 
have  said  about  the  Arab  Bedouins,  who  inhabited 
the  desert  to  the  east  of  Egypt,  and  were  called  in 
Egyptian  Shasu  (also  Shaus,  Shauas),  he  will  cer- 
tainly be  of  the  same  opinion  as  ourselves,  that  those 
who  maintain  the  Arab  origin  of  the  Hyksos,  must 
have  drawn  their  information  from  a  pure  Egyptian 
source.  For  that  word  Sos  answers  completely  to 
the   old  Egyptian  Shasu,  in  which  the  sound  sA,* 

*  We  will  adduce  further  examples,  borrowed  from  the  work  of 
Manetho,  which  leave  no  doubt  that  the  Greek  sign  for  s  was  used 
to  represent  the  old  Egyptian  sound  sh.  Manetho  transcribes  the 
kings'  names,  Sheshonq  as  Sesonchis,  Shabak  as  Sabakon,  Shaba- 
tak  as  Sebichos.  Also  the  name  of  king  Chufu,  which  the  Egyp- 
tians  at  the  time  of  the   composition  of  the  work  of  Manetho 

7 


98  THE   TRUE  STORY  OF 

which  did  not  exist  in  Greek,  according  to  usage 
was  replaced  by  a  simple  s  .  Although  Manetho, 
when  he  talks  of  the  Hyksos,  insists  upon  the  mean- 
ing of  shepherd,  he  could  only  do  this  in  consequence 
of  a  strange  confusion,  since  he  turns  to  the  new 
and  popular  language  of  his  own  time  to  explain  the 
second  syllable  sos,  in  which  accidentally  sos  (or 
shos^  as  the  same  word  is  still  pronounced  in  Coptic) 
means  a  shepherd. 

We  have  already  before  remarked  how  from  time 
to  time  the  Bedouin  people  *of  the  Shasu  knocked  at 
the  eastern  frontier  door  to  obtain  an  entrance  into 
Eg3^pt.  We  have,  on  the  ground  of  testimony  from 
an  inscription  of  the  time  of  the  nineteenth  dynasty, 
stated  the  certainty  of  their  presence  on  the  Egyp- 
tian soil,  when  hunger  drove  them  from  their  native 
hills  and  valleys  to  the  eastern  provinces  of  the 
Pharaonic  empire.  Like  the  modern  Bedouins,  the 
Shasu  were  a  pastoral  people  in  the  full  sense  of  the 
word.  The  old  name  of  the  race  of  the  Shasu  and 
Shaus-Bedouins  in  the  course  of  time  became  equiva- 
lent in  the  popular  language  to  'shepherds,'  that  is, 
a  wandering  people,  who  occupied  themselves  in 
bringing  up  cattle,  which  formed  the  only  wealth 

pronounced  Shufu,  was  transcribed  by  Manetho  Suphis.  The 
older,  and  only  correct  pronunciation  of  this  name  has  been  care- 
fully preserved  in  the  Cheops  of  Herodotus. 


THE  EXODUS  OF  ISRAEL.  99 

of  the  inhabitants  of  the  desert  in  all  times  down  to 
the  present  day. 

If  the  objection  should  be  raised  that  the  monu- 
ments (note  well,  those  which  have  been  discovered 
up  to  the  present  time)  pass  over  in  complete  silence 
the  name  of  Hyksos,  this  appearance  of  proof  loses 
all  its  importance  from  the  following  consideration. 
By  far  the  greater  number  of  contemporary  monu- 
ments which  once  existed  as  individual  witnesses  of 
the  remembrance  of  the  historical  events  under  the 
rule  of  tiie  foreign  kings,  have  entirely  disappeared 
from  the  surface  of  the  Egyptian  soil.  It  must  be 
left  to  some  lucky  accident,  that  somewhere  the 
stones  now  hidden  or  buried  in  the  rubbish  may 
come  to  the  light  of  day,  to  give  us  new  information 
about  these  portions  of  the  history  of  the  Egyptian 
empire,  which  are  as  obscure  as  they  are  important. 
The  wonderland  on  the  banks  of  the  mighty  Mle  is 
a  land  of  continual  and  startling  discoveries,  and  will 
remain  so  for  all  coming  times  and  generations.  In 
the  hope  of  finding  important  discoveries  in  the  soil 
of  Egypt  in  consequence  of  new  excavations,  we 
should  esteem  it  unwise  to  give  to  our  views  the 
absolute  form  of  a  fixed  unalterable  judgment.  But 
we  may  well  be  allowed  to  compare  the  information 
in  the  inscriptions  of  the  few  remains  of  the  monu- 
ments  which   have   been    preserved  with  the   ac- 


100  THE  TRUE  STORY  OF 

counts  whicli  the  Greeks  have  handed  down  to  us, 
and  from  this  to  form  our  own  opinion,  and  leave 
it  to  the  consideration  of  the  future,  if  by  a  happy 
accident  our  conjectures  should  be  confirmed  or 
refuted. 

At  the  present  moment  we  expressly  affirm  the 
complete  agreement  of  the  name  of  Hyksos  with  the 
Egyptian  double  word  we  have  mentioned  above  — 
Hak  Shaus,  that  is,  '  king  of  the  Arabs,'  or  '  king  of 
the  shepherds,'  —  the  probability  of  which  is  proved 
by  the  actual  existence  of  a  similar  form  in  the 
term  Hak  Abisha,  'king  (or  prince)  of  the  land  of 
Abisha,'  which  we  meet  with  in  the  hall  of  the  tomb 
of  Khnumhotep  at  Beni-Hassan.  We  will  not,  how- 
ever, on  the  other  hand,  maintain  that  the  appella- 
tion Hak  Shaus  is  the  same  which  the  bearers  of  it, 
of  whatever  descent  they  might  boast,  either  formed 
of  their  own  accord  for  themselves,  or  assumed  on 
account  of  their  office.  It  is  far  more  probable  that 
the  Egyptians,  when  at  last  they  drove  away  their 
tyrants  of  Semitic  blood,  gave  these  princes,  who  for 
several  centuries  had  considered  themselves  as  the 
legitimate  kings  of  Egypt,  the  nickname  Hak  Shasu 
by  way  of  a  contemptuous  expression. 

An  ancient  tradition  furnishes  an  important  addi- 
tion to  the  proofs  of  the  Arab  origin  of  the  hated 
Hyksos  kings,  which  has   been   preserved  by  sev- 


THE  EXODUS^OF  ISRAEL.  '  101' 

eral_Arab  historians  of  the  Middle  Ages.  An  Arab 
tradition  tells  us  of  a  certain  Sheddad  (the  name 
means  a  powerful  ruler),  the  son  of  Ad,  who  made 
an  irruption  into  Egypt,  conquered  the  country, 
and  extended  his  victorious  campaign  as  far  as  the 
Straits  of  Gibraltar.  He  and  his  descendants,  the 
founders  of  the  Amalekite  dynasty,  are  said  to  have 
maintained  themselves  more  than  two  hundred  years 
in  Lower  Egypt,  where  they  made  the  town  Awaris 
their  capital.* 

According  to  another  tradition,  on  the  testimony 
of  Africanus  (one  of  those  who  extracted  from  the 
work  of  Manetho),  the  Hyksos  kings  were  Phoeni- 
cians, who  took  possession  of  Memphis,  and  made 
the  town  of  Auaris,  or  Awaris,  in  the  Sethroite 
norne,  their  chief  fortress.  This  tradition  also  is 
not  without  a  certain  air  of  truth,  if  the  reader  will 
recall  to  mind  what  I  ventured  to  state  above 
regarding  the  Char-Phoenicians  and  the  town  Au- 
aris. The  ancient  seats  of  the  Shasu-Arabs  and  of 
the  Phoenicians  extended  towards  the  west  as  far 
as  the  same  town  of  Zor-Tanis.  The  two  races  must 
therefore  have  been  located  together  in  the  closest 
manner  —  the  first  as  wanderers,  the  last  as  fixed 
inhabitants  of  the  eastern  provinces  of  the  Egyptian 
empire,   which   were   possessed  by  the  foreigners. 

*  Compare  Fluegel's  History  of  the  Arabs,  2d  ed.  p.  11. 


rO'2  'i'li^  "tRVE  ST  OR  Y  OF 

That  the  cultivated  Khar  in  such  a  mixture  of 
nations  claimed  the  first  rank,  can  scarcely  need 
proof.  Whether  they  or  the  Shasu  were  the  oi-igi- 
nators  of  this  movement  against  the  native  kings  of 
the  empire,  is  a  point  for  the  decision  of  which  sci- 
entific research  has  hitherto  failed  to  discover  the 
means. 

Let  us  leave  entirely  the  ground  of  conjectures 
and  probabilities,  and  turn  now  to  the  monuments, 
to  see  if  they  can  furnish  us  with  any  existing  traces 
of  these  foreigners  to  assist  our  researches.  The 
answer  is  decidedly  in  the  affirmative,  but  in  such  a 
general  way  that  further  inspection  and  examination 
is  very  necessary.  The  inscriptions  designate  this 
foreign  people,  which  once  ruled  in  Egypt  till  it 
was  driven  from  the  country  by  the  The  ban  kings, 
by  the  name  of  Men,  or  Menti.  According  to  the 
great  table  of  nations  on  the  walls  of  the  temple  of 
Edfou,  those  called  Menti  are  inhabitants  of  the 
land  of  Asher.  By  the  help  of  the  demotic  trans- 
lation of  the  inscription,  in  two  languages,  on  the 
great  stone  of  Tanis  (known  Under  the  name  of  the 
decree  of  Canopus,  a  voucher,  it  is  true,  of  the  Pto- 
lemaic times),  we  can  establish  that  such  was  the 
common  name  of  Syria  in  the  mouths  of  the  Egyp- 
tians who  were  then  living  ;  while  the  older  name 
of  the  same  country,  in  the  hieroglyphic  part  of  the 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  103 

stone,  was5  Rutennu,  with  the  addition,  *of  the  East.' 
In  the  different  languages,  and  in  the  different  times 
of  history,  the  following  names,  Syria,  Rutennu  of 
the  East,  Asher,  and  Menti,  were  therefore  synony- 
mous. We  wish  here  to  point  out,  although  we 
leave  the  matter  undecided,  that  Asher,  in  late 
Egyptian,  may  perhaps  have  meant  the  Semitic 
Ashur,  or  Assyria,  and  at  last  may  have  become 
contracted  both  as  to  the  extent  of  country  and 
common  usage  to  the  well-known  geographical  term 
Syria. 

Of  high  importance  with  regard  to  the  foregoing 
question  appears  to  us  the  derivation  of  the  old 
national  name  Rutennu  (or  Lutennu),  which,  in  the 
history  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty,  aud  in  the  war- 
like campaigns  of  the  pharaohs  in  the  east,  plays 
such  an  important  part.  As  to  the  geographical 
extent  to  which  this  name  applied,  we  are  fortu- 
nately so  well  informed  that  no  mistake  can  ever 
occur  again.  In  the  great  catalogue  of  the  towns  of 
western  Asia  conquered  by  Thutmes  III.,  whose 
inhabitants,  after  the  battle  of  Megiddo,  submitted 
to  the  Egyptian  rule,  they  are  described  in  a  gen- 
eral superscription  as  all  the  population  of  '  the 
upper  land  of  the  Rutennu.'  This  proves,  in  the 
most  positive  manner,  that  the  name  of  Upper 
Rutennu  must  have  included  in  its  circumference 


104  THE   TRUE  STORY  OF 

almost  exactly  the  frontiers  of  the  country  which 
was  later  that  of  the  twelve  tribes  of  Israel. 

With  this  key  in  our  hand,  we  can  open  many 
a  closed  door  to  the  right  understanding  of  the 
great  movement  of  nations  to  the  east  of  Egypt, 
so  that  we  can  survey  with  a  clear  glance  the 
horizon  of  these  migrations.  If  it  is  an  undeniable 
fact,  resulting  from  historical  inquiry  under  the 
guidance  of  the  monuments,  that,  immediately  after 
the  driving  out  of  the  Menti,  the  Egyptian  kings  of 
the  eighteenth  dynasty  planned  their  campaigns  of 
conquest  against  the  countries  of  western  Asia 
inhabited  by  the  Rutennu,  then  there  lay  at  the 
bottom  of  these  obstinate  constantly  repeated  in- 
roads a  fixed  feeling  of  revenge  and  retribution  for 
losses  and  injuries  received.  The  conviction  forces 
itself  upon  us  almost  irresistibly,  that  the  irrup- 
tion of  the  foreigners  into  Egypt  was  made  by 
the  Syrians,  who,  in  their  campaigns  through  the 
arid  deserts,  found  in  the  Shasu-Arabs  welcome 
allies  who  well  knew  the  country.  And  here  I 
am  reminded  of  a  similar  alliance  which  Cambyses 
formed  with  the  Arabs  in  his  campaign  against 
Egypt.  They  found  also  in  the  Semitic  inhabitants 
settled  in  the  eastern  provinces  brothers  of  the  same 
race,  with  whose  assistance  they  succeeded  in  giv- 
ing a  death-blow  to  the  Egyptian  empire,  and  of 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  105 

robbing:  it  for  centuries  of  all  power  of  action  and 
independent  life. 

The  present  state  of  Egyptian  inquiry,  concern- 
ing the  history  of  the  Hyksos,  has  enabled  us  to  find 
an  answer  to  a  number  of  questions  which  stand  in 
close  connection  with  these  matters,  and  embrace 
the  following  facts  :  — 

1.  A  certain  number  of  non-Egyptian  kings  of 
foreign  origin,  belonging  to  the  nation  of  the  Menti, 
ruled  for  a  long  time  in  the  eastern  portion  of  the 
Delta. 

2.  The  foreign  princes  had,  besides  the  town 
Zoan,  chosen  as  the  capital  of  their  power  the 
typhonic  place  Hauar-Auaris,  on  the  east  side  of 
the  Pelusiac  arm  of  the  Nile,  within  what  was 
called  later  the  Sethroite  nome,  and  had  provided 
it  with  strong  fortifications. 

3.  The  foreigners  had,  besides  the  customs  and 
manners,  adopted  the  official  language  and  the  holy 
writing  of  the  Egyptians.  The  whole  arrangement 
of  their  court  was  formed  on  the  Egyptian  model. 

4.  These  same  foreign  kings  were  patrons  of  art. 
Egyptian  artists  made,  according  to  the  old  pattern 
and  according  to  the  prescribed  usage  of  their  fore- 
fathers, the  monuments  in  honor  of  the  foreign 
tyrants ;  yet,  in  the  statues  of  them,  they  were 
obliged  to  give  way  with  regard  to  the  expression 


106  THE  TRUE  STORY  OF 

of  the  foreign  countenances,  the  peculiar  arrange- 
ment of  the  beard,  and  the  head-dress  and  other 
deviations  of  foreign  costume. 

5.  These  foreign  kings  honored,  as  the  supreme 
god  of  their  newly-acquired  country,  the  son  of  the 
heavenly  goddess  Nut,  the  god  Set  or  Sutekh,  with 
the  additional  name  Nub,  '  gold,'  or  '  the  golden,'  — 
according  to  the  Egyptian  mode  of  viewing  things, 
the  origin  of  all  that  is  bad  and  perverse  in  the  seen 
and  unseen  world  ;  the  opponent  of  what  is  good, 
and  the  enemy  of  light.  In  the  towns  of  Zoan 
and  Auaris  the  foreigners  had  constructed  to  the 
honor  of  this  god  splendid  temples  and  other  monu- 
ments, especially  sphinxes,  constructed  of  stone 
from  Syene. 

6.  In  all  probability  one  of  the  foreign  lords  was 
the  originator  of  the  new  era,  which  most  likely 
began  wdth  the  first  year  of  his  reign.  Up  to  the 
reign  of  the  second  Ramses,  four  hundred  full  years 
had  elapsed  of  this  reckoning,  which  was  acknowl- 
edged by  the  Egyptians. 

T.  The  Egyptians  were  indebted  to  the  stay  of 
the  foreigners,  and  to  their  social  intercourse  with 
them,  for  much  useful  knowledge.  Especially  the 
horizon  of  their  artistic  views  was  enlarged,  and 
new  forms  and  shapes  were  introduced  into  Egyp- 
tian art,  the  Semitic  origin  of  which  is  obvious  from 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  \{f[ 

a  single  glance  at  these  productions.  The  winged 
Sphinx  may  be.  reckoned  as  a  notable  example  of 
this  new  direction  of  art  introduced  from  abroad. 

We  remarked  above  that  the  number  of  the 
monuments  which  contain  memorials  of  the  time  of 
the  Hyksos  is  very  limited ;  and  we  must  add  that 
the  names  of  the  Hyksos  kings,  with  which  they 
ornamented  their  own  memorial-stones  (statues, 
sphinxes,  and  similar  works),  or  those  of  earlier 
Egyptian  kings  of  the  times  before  them,  have 
arrived  to  us  half  obliterated  or  carefully  chiselled 
out,  so  that  the  decipherment  of  the  faint  traces 
which  remain  has  to  struggle  with  great  difficulties. 
These  important  lacunae  in  the  study  of  the  Egyp- 
tian monuments  find  a  sufficient  explanation  in  the 
proved  and  easily  understood  practice  of  the  kings 
of  native  race  who  ascended  the  throne  after  the 
expulsion  of  the  foreigners,  and  who  particularly 
set  themselves  carefully  to  obliterate  all  remem- 
brance of  the  hated  princes,  and  to  destroy  and 
annihilate  their  works. 

The  names  of  the  Hyksos  kings,  which  are  en- 
graved on  the  more  than  life-size  statue  at  Tell 
Mukhdam,  the  border  of  the  stand  of  the  colossal 
sphinxes  in  the  Louvre,  the  lion  found  near  Bag- 
dad, the  sacrificial  stone  in  the  Museum  of  Boulak, 
are    scratched    out    with  great   care,   so   as   to  be 


108  THE    TRUE  STORY  OF 

almost  undistinguishable ;  and  science  has  to  thank 
a  happy  accident  for  the  preservation  and  decipher- 
ment of  the  names  of  two  Hyksos  kings.  These 
are : 

1.  The  king,  whose  first  cartouche  contains  the 
name  Ra  aa-ab-taui,  and  whose  second  cartouche 
encloses  the  family  name  Apopi,  or  Apopa ;  and, 

2.  King  Nubti,  or  Nub,  with  the  official  name 
Set  aa-pe-huti  (properly,  '  Set  the  powerful '). 

The  name  of  the  first-mentioned  .king,  which 
would  be  pronounced  in  the  Memphitic  dialect 
Aphophi,  differs  little  from  that  of  the  Shepherd 
king  Aphobis,  or  Aphophis,  Apophis,  which,  accord- 
ing to  the  Manethonian  tradition,  was  the  fourth  of 
the  above-named  Hyksos  kings.  We  will  also  not 
withhold  the  remark,  that  many  Egyptians  of  these 
times  call  themselves  Apopi,  or  Apopa,  in  the  same 
way,  with  a  certain  predilection. 

The  names  which  designate  the  other  Hyksos 
kings  are  in  a  striking  manner  similar  in  sound  with 
the  names  which  the  god  '  Set-Nub  the  powerful '  is 
accustomed  to  bear  on  the  Egyptian  monuments. 
Was  it  the  intention  of  the  foreign  prince  to  be 
prayed  to  as  the  god  Set  ? 

In  the  deep  obscurity  in  which  a  pitiless  fate  has 
hidden  the  history  of  the  irruption  and  the  domin- 
ion of  the  Hyksos  kings  in  Egypt,  a  ray  of  light  is 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL,  109 

visible  onlj^  towards  the  close  of  the  tyranny  of  the 
foreigners. 

In  a  roll  of  papyrus  in  the  British  Museum  (Sal- 
lier,  No.  1)  there  is,  although  unfortunately  much 
interrupted  with  lacunse,  the  beginning  of  an  his- 
torical description  which  is  connected  with  the 
names  of  the  foreign  king  Apopi  and  the  Egyptian 
underlying  Ra-Sekenen  (the  victorious  Sun-god  Ra), 
both  contemporaries.  It  is  the  glory  of  that  master 
of  science,  E.  de  Rouge,  too  soon  lost  to  us,  to  have 
first  recognized  the  high  value  of  this  writing  in 
its  full  importance.  It  begins  with  the  following 
words :  — 

(I.  1)  "It  came  to  pass  that  the  land  of  Kemi 
belonged  to  enemies.  And  nobody  was  lord  in  the 
day  when  that  happened.  At  that  time  there  was 
indeed  a  king  Ra-Sekenen,  but  he  was  only  a  Hak 
of  the  town  of  the  south,  but  the  enemies  sat  in 
the  town  of  the  Amu,  and  there  was  king  (Ur)  (2) 
Apopi  in  the  town  of  Auaris.  And  the  whole  world 
brought  him  its  productions,  also  the  northern  land 
did  the  same  with  all  the  good  things  of  Ta-meri ; 
and  the  king  Apopi  (3)  chose  the  god  Set  for  his 
divine  master,  and  he  did  not  serve  any  of  the  gods 
which  were  worshipped  in  the  whole  land.  He 
built  him  a  temple  of  beautiful  work,  to  last  a  long 
time  [.  .  .  and  the   king]   (4)   Apopi   (appointed) 


110  THE   TRUE  STORY  OF 

feasts  (and)  days  to  offer  (sacrifices)  at  each  time 
to  the  god  Sutech." 

The  king  Ra-Sekenen  in  '  the  city  of  the  south' 
had,  according  to  all  appearance,  incurred  the  par- 
ticular displeasure  of  the  tyrant  of  Auaris,  who 
intended  to  hurl  him  from  the  throne,  and  sought 
for  means  and  pretexts  to  carry  out  his  intention. 

There  had  evidently  before  this  begun  a  corre- 
spondence between  the  tyrant  in  the  north  and  the 
Hak  in  the  southern  land,  in  which  the  first-named 
among  other  things  required  of  the  last  to  give  up 
the  worship  of  his  gods,  and, to  worship  Amon-Ra 
alone  as  the  only  divinity  of  the  country.  Ra- 
Sekenen  had  declared  himself  prepared  for  all,  but 
had  added  a  proviso  to  his  letter,  in  which  he 
expressly  declared,  to  allow  him  to  speak  for  him- 
self (II.  1)  "  that  he  was  not  able  to  promise  to 
serve  any  other  of  the  gods  which  were  worshipped 
in  the  whole  country  but  Amon-Ra,  the  king  of  the 
gods  alone." 

A  new  message  to  the  unfortunate  Hak  of  the 
southern  city  was  deliberated  upon  and  agreed  to 
by  king  Apopi.  The  papyrus  announces  this  in 
these  words  :  —  ''  Many  days  later  after  these  events 
(II.  2)  King  Apopi  sent  to  the  governor  of  the 
town  in  the  land  of  the  south  this  message,  .  .  . 
which  his  secretaries  had  advised  him.     (3)  And 


THE  EXODUS  OF  ISRAEL.  HI 

the  messenger  of  Apopi  betook  himself  to  the  gov- 
ernor of  the  city  of  the  south.  And  (the  messen- 
ger) was  brought  before  the  governor  of  the  city  of 
the  south.  (4)  He  spoke  thus,  when  he  spoke  to 
the  messenger  of  King  Apopi :  '  Who  sent  thee 
here  to  this  city  of  the  south  ?  How  hast  thou 
come  to  spy  out  ?  '  " 

The  messenger  of  king  Apopi  thus  addressed, 
first  answered  the  governor  in  these  simple  words, 
'  King  Apopi  it  is  who  sends  to  thee  ; '  and  there- 
upon delivers  his  message,  the  particular  contents 
of  which  are  very  disquieting  to  the  first-mentioned 
personage.  It  was  a  question  of  stopping  a  canal. 
The  first  remark  of  the  messenger  that  he  had  not 
taken  sleep  either  day  or  night,  until  he  had  ful- 
filled his  mission,  must  appear  like  scorn.  The 
writer  paints  the  situation  of  the  Hak  wdth  few 
words,  but  those  full  of  meaning. 

"  (6)  And  the  governor  of  the  town  in  the  south 
was  for  a  long  time  troubled  so  that  he  could  not 
(7)  unswer  the  messenger  of  King  Apopi." 

But  he  nerved  himself  and  made  a  speech  to  the 
messenger.  Unfortunately  the  chief  contents  of  it 
have  been  torn  out  by  the  destruction  of  the  papyrus 
at  this  place.  After  the  foreign  messenger  had  been 
hospitably  entertained,  he  betook  himself  back  to 
the    court    of   king    Apopi,   while    Ra-Sekenen    as 


112  THE  TRUE  STORY  OF 

quickly  as  possible  called  his  friends  around  him. 
The  papyrus  thus  relates  what  occurred : 

"  (11)  And  the  messenger  of  King  Apopi  returned 
to  the  place  where  his  lord  tarried  (III.  1).  There- 
upon the  governor  of  the  town  of  the  south  called 
unto  him  the  great  and  chief  men,  as  the  command- 
ers and  captains  who  accompanied  him,  (2)  in  order 
(to  communicate)  to  them  the  message  which  King 
Apopi  had  sent  to  him,  but  they  all  of  one  accord 
were  silent  through  great  grief,  and  wist  not  what 
to  answer  him  good  or  bad." 

After  the  following  words, '  then  sent  King  Apopi 
to  the,'  the  writer  breaks  off  in  the  middle  of  a  sen- 
tence, without  satisfying  the  curiosity  of  his  read- 
ers two-and-thirty  centuries  afterwards.  For  next 
comes  the  beginning  of  the  letters  of  Pentaur,  the 
poet  of  the  well-known  heroic  song  of  the  great 
deeds  of  Ramses  II.  at  Kadesh. 

Although  this  precious  writing  is  frequently,  in 
the  most  important  passages  of  the  narrative  of 
Apopi,  interrupted  through  holes  and  rents,  owing 
to  the  splitting  of  the  papyrus,  still  what  remains  is 
amply  sufficient  to  make  known  to  us  the  persons, 
the  places,  and  the  circumstances  of  this  historical 
drama. 

King  Apopi  meets  us  as  chief  hero.  His  royal 
residence   is  in  Auaris.     The   enemies,  foreigners, 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  113 

have  taken  possession  of  Egypt.  Its  inhabitants  are 
obliged  to  pay  a  tax  of  their  possessions  and  sub- 
stance to  the  foreign  tyrants.  Apopi  worships  his 
own  divinity,  the  god  Sutech,  who  is  already  known 
to  us  as  the  Egyptian  expression  of  the  Semitic  Baal, 
especially  of  Baal  Zapuna,  the  Baal-zephon  of  Holy 
Scripture.  He  builds  a  splendid  temple  to  his  god, 
and  appoints  festivals  and  offerings  for  him. 

In  the  south  of  the  land,  in  No,  '  the  town '  of 
the  south,  that  is  in  Thebes,  the  capital  of  Patoris, 
'  the  region  of  the  south '  (the  biblical  Pathros), 
there  sat  an  offshoot  of  the  oppressed  pharaohs,  Ra- 
Sekenen,  only  invested  with  the  title  of  Hak,  or 
sub-king. 

King  Apopi  is  the  all-powerful  lord,  the  general 
ruler  of  the  land.  Complaisant  learned  men  belong 
to  his  court,  who  bear  the  remarkable  title  of  Rechi- 
chet,  that  is,  the  experts.*  They  give  counsel  to  the 
king,  bad  counsel  as  it  appears,  since  they  induce 
him  to  send  a  messenger  to  the  sub-king  in  No,  with 
still  more  severe  demands  worthy  of  a  Cambyses. 
The  messenger  enjoys  no  rest,  but  day  and  night 
hurries  to  the  southern  land. 

The  sub-king,  Ra-Sekenen,  receives  him  with  the 

*  On  the  stone  of  Tanis  the  Greek  translator  renders  this  term 
by  the  well-known  word  Hierogrammats,  or  Temple  scribes. 

8 


114  THE   TRUE  STORY  OF 

same  question  which  Joseph,  his  contemporary,  put 
to  his  own  brethren  when  thej  came  down  to  Egypt 
to  buy  corn,  since  he  said  to  them,  '  Whence  come 
ye  ?  Ye  are  spies,  and  ye  are  come  here  to  see 
wh'ere  the  land  is  open.' 

After  the  Hak  had  received  all  the  communica- 
tions of  the  tyrant  Apopi  from  the  mouth  of  his 
messenger,  he  was  deeply  moved  by  their  dangerous 
import.  The  great  lords  and  chief  men  of  his  court 
were  summoned  to  a  council ;  and  the  leaders  also 
of  the  army,  the  Uau  or  officers,  and  the  Hauti  or 
captains,  took  part  in  it. 

But  good  counsel  is  dear.  No  one  dared  to 
make  any  proposal  from  the  fear  of  unfortunate 
consequences. 

Such  is  an  abstract  of  this  remarkable  document. 
We  may  rest  assured,  even  without  knowing  the 
conclusion  of  the  whole  story,  that  the  author  of  it 
must  have  aimed,  by  his  description,  at  portraying 
something  more  important  than  the  humiliation  of  a 
native  Hak.  The  subject  without  doubt  really  was 
the  history  of  the  uprising  of  the  Egyptians  against 
the  yoke  of  the  foreigners.  In  order  to  teach  us  the 
cause  and  meaning  of  this,  the  unknown  narrator 
begins  his  history  of  the  war  of  liberation,  which 
was  brought  about  in  the  way  we  have  mentioned, 
by  a  description  of  the  unfortunate  position  of  the 


TEE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  115 

empire.  His  history,  which  began  so  sadly,  ends 
happily,  and  the  actual  proofs  from  the  monuments 
bear  out  his  fortunate  conclusion. 

In  order  to  find  the  proofs  from  the  monuments, 
let  us  betake  ourselves  to  the  land  of  the  south,  let 
us  pass  by  the  towns  of  Thebes,  Hermonthis,  and 
Latopolis,  on  both  sides  of  the  stream,  and  let  us 
stop  on  the  right  bank,  in  sight  of  the  most  ancient 
walls  of  the  city  of  El-Kab.  This  discovers  to  us 
the  position  and  extent  of  the  former  capital  of 
the  third  upper  Egyptian  nome,  which  the  Greeks 
designated  as  the  town  of  Eileithyia,  the  *  goddess 
presiding  over  births,'  and  the  Romans  as  the  town 
of  Lucina  in  their  description  of  Egyptian  places. 
In  the  background  towards  the  east  there  rise  rocky 
hills,  with  long  rows  of  tombs,  whose  dark  openings 
appear  to  the  traveller  like  the  broken  windows  of 
a  ruined  castle. 

We  will  betake  ourselves  to  the  chambers  of  the 
tombs. 

In  truly  venerable  forms,  which  seem  to  people 
the  chambers  of  the  dead,  we  greet  the  contempo- 
raries of  the  H3^ksos  kings,  whose  progeny  belonged 
to  the  heroes  of  the  great  war  of  liberation  of  the 
Eg3^ptians  from  the  tyranny  of  the  foreigners. 

Let  us  enter  these  chambers  of  the  dead,  which  a 
grandson  has   dedicated  to  the  hero  Aahmes,  the 


116  THE  TRUE  STORY  OF 

son  of  Abana-Baba,  and  his  whole  house  as  the 
last  memorial  of  their  existence  and  of  their  deeds. 
The  walls  of  the  narrow  chamber  are  covered  by  a 
widely-spread  genealogical  tree  of  his  race,  which 
has  suffered  much  injury. 

Aahmes,  the  son  of  Baba-Abana,  and  his  daugh- 
ter's son  Pahir,  form  the  most  important  persons  of 
the  genealogical  tree. 

We  will  lay  before  the  reader  a  faithful  transla- 
tion of  the  inscription  in  which  Aahmes  portrayed 
in  the  old  speech  the  course  of  his  life  as  a  picture 
of  the  time  for  posterity.  The  actual  author  of  the 
inscription  is  '  the  son  of  his  daughter,  who  exe- 
cuted the  work  in  this  sepulchral  chamber,  in  order 
to  perpetuate  the  name  of  the  father  of  his  mother, 
the  master  of  the  drawing  art  of  Amon,  Pahir.' 

The  following  are  the  words  of  the  inscription  as 
the  clever  Pahir  executed  it : 

1.  The  deceased  chief  of  the  sailors,  Aahmes,  a  son  of 
Abana 

2.  speaks  thus.  I  speak  to  you,  to  all  people,  and  I 
give  3^ou  to  know  the  honorable  praise  which  was  givQn 
to  me.  I  was  presented  with  a  golden  chain  eight  times 
in  the  sight 

3.  of  the  whole  land,  and  with  male  and  female  slaves 
in  great  numbers.  I  had  a  possession  of  many  acres. 
The  surname  of  *  the  brave '  which  I  gained  never  van- 
ished away 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  117 

4.  in  this  land.  He  speaks  also  further.  I  have  com- 
pleted my  3^outhful  wandering  in  the  town  of  Nukheb. 
My  father  was  a  captain  of  the  deceased  Ra  Sekenen, 
Baba 

5.  son  of  Roant,  was  his  name.  Then  I  became  cap- 
tain in  his  place  on  the  ship  '  The  Calf,'  in  the  time  of  the 
lord  of  the  country,  Aahmes,  the  deceased. 

6.  I  was  still  young  and  unmarried,  and  was  girded 
with  the  garment  of  the  band  of  youths.  Still,  after  I 
had  prepared  for  myself  a  house,  I  was  taken 

7.  on  the  ship  '  The  North,'  because  of  my  strength. 
It  was  m}'  duty  to  accompany  the  great  lord  —  life,  pros- 
perity, and  health  attend  him !  —  on  foot,  when  he  rode 
in  his  chariot. 

8.  They  besieged  the  town  of  Auaris.  My  duty  was 
to  be  valiantl}^  on  foot  before  his  holiness.  Then  was  I 
changed 

9.  to  the  ship  'Ascent  in  Memphis.'  They  fought  by 
sea  on  the  lake  Pazetku  of  Auaris.  I  fought  in  a  strug- 
gle with  fists,  and 

10.  I  gained  a  hand.  This  was  shown  to  the  herald 
of  the  king.  They  gave  me  a  golden  present  for  my 
bravery.  After  that  a  new  fight  arose  in  this  place,  and 
anew  I  fought  in  a  struggle  with  fists 

11.  in  that  place,  and  I  gained  a  hand.  They  gave  me 
a  golden  present  another  time.  And  they  fought  at  the 
place  Takem  to  the  south  of  the  town  (Auaris) . 

12.  I  gained  of  living  prisoners  a  grown-up  man.  I 
went  into  the  water  —  him  also  bringing  to  remain  aside 
from  the  road  to 

13.  the  town.  I  went,  firmly  holding  him,  through  the 
water.  They  announced  me  to  the  herald  of  the  king. 
Then  I  was  presented  with  a  golden  present  again.    They 


118  TEE  TRUE  STORY  OF 

14.  conquered  Auaris.  I  gained  in  that  place  prison- 
ers, a  grown-up  man  and  three  women,  which  makes  in 
all  three  heads.  His  holiness  gave  them  to  me  for  my 
possession  as  slaves. 

15.  They  besieged  the  town  Sherohan  in  the  sixth  year. 
His  holiness  took  it.  I  brought  booty  home  from  here, 
two  women  and  a  hand. 

16.  They  gave  me  a  golden  present  for  valor.  In  ad- 
dition, the  prisoners  from  it  were  given  to  me  as  slaves. 
After  then  that  his  holiness  had  mown  down  the  Syrians 
of  the  land  of  Asia, 

17.  he  went  against  Khont-Hon-nofer  to  smite  the 
mountaineers  of  Nubia.  His  holiness  made  a  great 
destruction  among  them. 

18.  I  carried  booty  away  from  that  place,  two  living 
grown-up  men  and  three  hands.  I  was  presented  with  a 
golden  gift  another  time  ;  they  also  gave  me  three  female 
slaves. 

19.  His  holiness  descended  the  stream.  His  heart  was 
joyful  because  of  brave  and  victorious  deeds.  He  had 
taken  possession  of  the  south  and  of  the  north  land. 
There  came  an  enemy  from  the  southern  region. 

20.  He  approached.  His  advantage  was  the  number 
of  his  people.  The  gods  of  the  southern  land  were  against 
his  fist.  His  holiness  found  him  at  the  water  Tent-ta-tot. 
His  holiffess  brought  him  forth 

21.  as  a  living  prisoner.  All  his  people  brought  booty 
back.  I  brought  back  two  young  men,  when  I  had  cut 
them  off  from  the  ship  of  the  enemy.     They 

22.  gave  me  five  heads,  besides  my  share  of  five  hides 
of  arable  land  in  my  town.  It  happened  thus  to  all  the 
ship's  crew  in  the  same  way.     Twice 

23.  there  came  that  enemy  whose  name  was  Teta.    He 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  119 

had  assembled  with  him  a  bad  set  of  fellows.     His  holi- 
ness annihilated  him  and  his  men,  so  that  they  no  longer - 
existed.     So  there  were 

24.  given  to  me  three  people  and  five  hides  of  arable 
land  in  my  town.  I  conveyed  by  water  the  deceased  king 
Amenhotep  I.,  when  he  went  up  against  Kush  to  extend 

25.  the  borders  of  Egypt.  He  smote  these  Nubians 
b}^  means  of  his  warriors.  Being  pressed  closely,  they 
could  not  escape.     Bewildered 

26.  they  remained  in  the  place  just  as  if  they  were 
nothing.  Then  I  stood  at  the  head  of  our  warriors,  and 
I  fought  as  was  right.  His  holiness  admired  my  valor. 
I  gained  two  hands, 

27.  and  brought  them  to  his  holiness.  They  sought 
after*  their  inhabitants  and  their  herds.  I  brought  down 
a  living  prisoner  and  brought  him  to  his  holiness.  I 
brought  his  holiness  in  two  daj's  to  Egypt 

28.  from  Khnumt-hirt  (that  is,  the  upper  spring). 
Then  I  was  presented  with  a  golden  gift.  Then  I 
brought  forward  two  female  slaves,  besides  those  which 
lied 

29.  to  his  holiness,  and  I  was  raised  to  the  dignity  of 
a  '  champion  of  the  prince.'  I  convej^ed  the  deceased 
King  Thutmes  I.,  when  he  ascended  by  water  to  Chont- 
hon-nofer, 

30.  to  put  an  end  to  the  strife  among  the  inhabitants, 
and  to  stop  the  attacks  on  the  land  side.  And  I  was 
brave  (before  him)  on  the  water.  It  went  badly  on  the 
(attack) 

31.  of  the  ship  on  account  of  its  upsetting.  They 
raised  me  to  the  rank  of  a  captain  of  the  sailors.  His 
holiness  —  may  life,  prosperity,  and  health  be  allotted  to 
him !  — 


120  THE  TRUE  STORY  OF 

32.  (Here  follows  a  rent,  which,  according  to  the  con- 
text, is  to  be  filled  up  in  such  a  manner  as  to  show  that  a 
new  occasion  calls  the  king  to  war  against  the  people  of 
the  south.)  ^ 

33.  His  holiness  raged  against  them  like  a  panther,  and 
his  holiness  slung  his  first  dart,  which  remained  sticking 
in  the  bod}^  of  his  enemy.     He 

34.  fell  fainting  down  before  the  royal  diadem.  There 
was  then  in  a  short  time  a  (great  defeat) ,  and  their  people 
were  taken  away  as  living  enemies. 

35.  And  his  holiness  travelled  downwards.  All  nations 
were  in  his  power.  And  this  wretched  king  of  the  Nu- 
bian people  found  himself  bound  on  the  fore  part  of  the 
ship  of  his  holiness,  and  he  was  placed  on*the  ground 

36.  in  the  town  of  Thebes.  After  this  his  holiness  be- 
took himself  to  the  land  of  the  Rutennu,  to  cool  his  anger 
among  the  inhabitants  of  the  land.  His  holiness  reached 
the  land  of  Naharina. 

37.  His  holiness  found  —  life,  prosperitj'',  and  health 
to  him  !  —  these  enemies.  He  ordered  the  battle.  His 
holiness  made  a  great  slaughter  among  them. 

38.  The  crowd  of  the  living  prisoners  was  innumerable, 
which  his  majesty  carried  away  in  consequence  of  his  vic- 
Xory.  And  behold,  I  was  at  the  head  of  our  warriors. 
His  holiness  admired  my  valor. 

39.  I  carried  off  a  chariot  of  war  and  its  horses,  and 
those  which  were  upon  it,  as  living  prisoners,  and  brought 
them  to  his  holiness.  Then  I  was  afterwards  presented 
with  gold.  "* 

40.  Now  I  have  passed  many  days  and  reached  a  gray 
old  age.  My  lot  will  be  that  of  all  men  upon  the  earth. 
[I  shall  go  down  into  the  lower  world,  and  be  placed  in 
the]  coflSn,  which  I  have  made  for  myself 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  121 

The  hard  time  of  distress  and  tyranny  was  now 
past  for  the  Egyptian  people.  The  reign  of  oppres- 
sion was  at  once  broken  up,  when  Auaris  had  fallen, 
and  another  town  of  the  Hyksos,  the  fortress  Shero- 
han,  had  been  taken  by  storm.  In  the  sixth  year  of 
the  reign  of  king  Aahmes,  the  founder  of  the  eigh- 
teenth house  of  the  pharaohs,  Kemi  was  at  length 
freed  from  the  long  oppression  of  the  foreigner,  and 
the  armed  soldiers  of  the  pharaoh  passed  trium- 
phantly through  the  lands  of  the  south  and  the  east 
of  Egypt,  to  conquer  what  had  been  lost,  and '  to  wash 
their  heart,'  that  is,  to  cool  their  anger  against  the 
enemies  from  a  foreign  land.  Yet  we  must  not  fore- 
stall the  events,  the  true  portraying  of  which  the 
simple  narratives  of  two  warriors  of  those  days  have 
handed  down  to  us,  and  we  will  next  cast  another 
glance  at  the  conclusion  of  the  seventeenth  dynasty. 

King  Taa  III.,  with  the  surname  of  '  the  brave,' 
the  predecessor  of  the  Pharaoh  Aahmes,  the  con- 
queror of  Auaris,  reigned  in  No-Thebes.  His  atten- 
tion was  directed  to  the  creation  of  a  Nile  flotilla, 
with  the  intention  one  day  of  conquering  Auaris, 
which  was  under  the  dominion  of  the  Lower  Egyp- 
tian Netherlands. 

His  successor,  of  the  name  of  Kames,  seems  only 
to  have  reigned  a  short  time.  He  was  'the  husband 
of   the   much   venerated   queen  Aah-hotep,   whose 


122  THE  TRUE  STORY  OF 

coffin  with  the  golden  ornaments  on  the  body  was 
some  years  ago  found  by  some  Theban  agriculturists 
in  the  ancient  necropolis  of  No,  buried  only  a  few 
feet  below  the  surface  of  the  soil.*  These  venerable 
artistic  and  historically  precious  remains  of  Egyp- 
tian antiquity,  were  delivered  over  to  the  Museum 
of  Boolaq. 

*  The  cover  of  the  coffin  has  the  shape  of  a  mummy,  and  it  is 
gilt  above  and  below.  The  holy  royal  asp  decks  the  brow.  The 
eyelids  are  gilt.  The  white  of  the  eyes  is  represented  by  quartz, 
and  the  pupils  by  black  glass.  A  rich  imitation  necklace  covers 
the  breast  and  shoulders ;  the  Uraeus  serpent  and  the  vulture  — 
the  holy  symbols  of  the  Upper  and  the  Lower  land  of  Kemi  —  lie 
below  the  necklace.  A  closed  pair  of  wings  seems  to  protect  the 
rest  of  the  body.  At  the  soles  of  the  feet  stand  the  statues  of  the 
mourning  goddesses  Isis  and  Nephthys.  Tlie  inscription  in  the 
middle  row  gives  us  the  name  of  the  queen,  Aah-hotep,  that  is, 
*  servant  of  the  moon.' 

When  the  coffin  was  opened,  there  were  found  between  the 
linen  coverings  precious  weapons  and  ornaments :  daggers,  a 
golden  axe,  a  chain  with  three  large  golden  bees,  and  a  breast- 
plate. On  the  body  itself  was  found  a  golden  chain  with  a  scara- 
baaus  attached,  armlets,  a  fillet  for  the  brow,  and  other  objects. 
Two  little  ships  in  gold  and  silver,  bronze  axes,  and  great  bangles 
for  the  ankles,  lay  immediately  upon  the  wood  of  the  coffin. 

The  richest  and  the  most  precious  of  the  ornaments  showed  the 
shields  of  the  Pharaoh  Aahmes.  He  bears  on  them  the  surname 
of  Nakht,  that  is,  'the  brave  or  victorious.'  Without  doubt,  then. 
Queen  Aah-hotep  was  buried  in  Thebes  during  the  reign  of  her 
son  Aahmes.  Mention  has  already  been  made  of  the  tomb  of  her 
royal  husband  at  Thebes.  Aah-hotep  is  therefore  the  proper  an- 
cestress of  the  eighteenth  dynasty.  It  was  her  son  Aahmes  who 
'  was  destined  to  rise  up  as  the  avenger  of  his  native  country  for 
the  shame  and  oppression  which  it  had  so  long  endured.  If  there- 
fore Apopi  was  the  pharaoh  that  honored  Joseph,  Aahmes  was  the 
king  that  succeeded  him. 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  123 

And  yet  a  strange  enigma  covers  this  age  of 
shame,  the  veil  of  which  we  are  not  yet  able  to  lift. 
For  on  a  minute  examination  of  the  monuments  of 
the  times  of  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  dynas- 
ties, many  well-founded  reflections  force  themselves 
upon  us  involuntarily  ;  since,  in  fact,  it  would  seem 
as  if  the  hatred  of  the  Egyptians  against  the  Hyksos 
kings  had  not  been  so  intense  as  the  story  handed 
down  by  Manetho  appears  to  represent  it.  We  of 
course  except,  when  we  speak  of  the  Egyptians,  the 
legitimate  but  oppressed  kings  of  '  the  region  of  the 
south,'  in  the  Upper  country,  to  whom  the  foreign 
tyrants  in  the  Lowlands  must  have  appeared  in  no 
agreeable  light. 

Between  the  Egyptian  and  Semitic  races  —  and 
whatever  may  have  been  the  exact  complexion  and 
descent  of  the  latter  —  there  certainly  was  no  deep- 
rooted  hereditary  enmity,  as  the  interpreters  would 
make  us  believe.  There  was,  indeed,  a  hatred  on 
the  part  of  the  Theban  race  of  kings,  to  whom  their 
humiliation  by  the  foreigners  appeared  all  the  more 
unendurable,  as  they  had  not  the  strength  and 
power  to  free  themselves  from  their  dependence  on 
the  foreign  lords  of  the  Netherlands.  They  had 
only  at  their  command  the  weapon  of  the  weaker 
against  the  stronger  —  namely,  an  exaggeration  of 
the  real  existing  relations  between  them  —  by  pic- 


124  TEE  TRUE  STORY  OF 

turing  the  foreigners  as  relentless  against  everything 
native.  Hence  they  derived  consolation,  and  an 
excuse  for  their  own  incapability  to  shake  off  the 
yoke,  and  to  regain  the  firm  possession  of  the  whole 
kingdom. 

We  will  simply  put  the  question,  If  those  foreign 
kings  were  in  fact  desecrators  of  the  temples,  devas- 
tators and  destroyers  of  the  works  of  bygone  ages, 
how  is  it  that  these  ancient  works,  although  only 
the  last  remains  of  them,  still  exist,  and  especially 
in  the  chief  seats  of  the  Hyksos  dominion ;  and 
further,  that  these  foreign  kings  allowed  their  names 
to  be  engraved  as  memorial  witnesses  on  the  works 
of  the  native  pharaohs  ?  Instead  of  destroying  they 
preserved  them,  and  sought  by  appropriate  measures 
to  perpetuate  themselves  and  their  remembrance  on 
the  monuments  already  existing  of  former  rulers. 

Zoan-Tanis,  the  capital  of  the  Egyptian  eastern 
provinces,  with  its  world  of  temples  and  statues  of 
the  times  of  the  sixth,  twelfth,  and  thirteenth  dynas- 
ties, had  so  little  to  suffer  from  the  Hyksos,  that  on 
the  contrary  these  princes  thought  it  incumbent 
upon  them  to  increase  the  splendor  of  this  vast 
temple-town  by  their  own  constructions,  although 
in  a  Semitic  style  of  execution. 

To  the  Theban  kings  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty 
must  first  be  attributed  the  doubtful  praise  of  nxik- 


THE  EXODUS  OF  ISRAEL.  125 

ing  war  on  the  dead  stones  as  a  vengeance  against 
the  Hyksos  kings,  which  their  forefathers  had  in 
vain  sought  to  wreak  on  the  living  monarchs.  To 
destroy  the  monuments  of  the-  opposition  kings,  to 
annihilate  their  names  and  titles  so  as  to  render 
them  unrecognizable,  and  to  falsify  historical  truth 
by  inscribing  their  own  names,  such  was  the  system 
invented  by  the  Egyptian  pharaohs,  who  set  about 
their  work  with  such  success  as  nearly  to  root  out 
from  the  face  of  the  earth  the  contemporary  memo- 
rials of  the  Hyksos  kings.  We  have  to  thank  this 
persecution  for  the  difficulties  which  lie  in  the  way 
of  restoring  the  history  of  the  m'ost  ancient  domina- 
tion of  the  foreigners  in  Egypt. 

Before  we  conclude  this  chapter,  perhaps  we  may 
be  allowed  to  make  some  remarks  on  the  relation, 
in  point  of  time,  of  these  historical  events,  with  the 
stay  of  the  Hyksos  on  one  side,  and  on  the  other 
side  with  the  stay  of  the  children  of  Israel,  on  Egyp- 
tian soil.  We  have  already  made  mention  of  a 
memorial  stone  of  the  time  of  the  second  Ramses 
found  in  Tanis,  the  inscription  on  which  commences 
with  the  following  indication  of  its  date :  '  In  the 
year  400,  on  the  4th  day  of  the  month  Mesori  of 
King  Nub.'  As  on  the  basis  of  the  newest  and 
best  inquiries  into  the  question  of  old  Egyptian 
chronology  we  fix  the  reign  of  Ramses  II.  at  the 


126  THE   TRUE  STORY  OF 

year  1350  b.  c.  as  a  mean  rate  between  various  pro- 
posals, the  reign  of  the  Hyksos  king  Nub,  and  prob- 
ably the  beginning  of  his  reign,  would  fall  about 
the  year  1750  b.  c,  that  is,  four  hundred  years 
before  Ramses  II.  Although  we  are  completely  in 
the  dark  as  to  what  place  king  Nub  occupied  in  the 
succession  of  the  princes  of  his  house,  yet  the  num- 
ber mentioned  has  a  certain  importance  in  fixing  an 
approximative  date  for  the  stay  of  the  foreign  kings 
in  Egypt.  This  importance  becomes  much  enhanced 
by  its  very  clear  relation  to  a  similar  statement  in 
Holy  Writ  in  relation  to  the  total  duration  of  the 
stay  of  the  children  of  Israel  in  Egypt.  According 
to  this  statement  (Exodus  xii.  40)  the  Hebrews 
from  the  time  of  the  immigration  of  their  ancestor 
Jacob  till  the  exodus  had  remained  four  hundred 
and  thirty  years  in  Egypt.  In  another  place  (Gen- 
esis XV.  13)  the  duration  of  their  stay  is  expressed 
by  the  round  number  of  four  hundred  years.  Now, 
as  according  to  general  acceptation  the  exodus  from 
Egj'pt  took  place  after  the  death  of  Ramses  II.,  the 
pharaoh  of  the  oppression,  the  year  1300  will  ap- 
proximately correspond  to  the  time  of  the  exodus 
in  the  reign  of  Mineptah,  the  son  and  successor  of 
Ramses  II.  If  we  add,  therefore,  four  hundred  and 
thirty  j^ears  as  the  expression  for  the  total  duration 
of  the  stay  of  the  Hebrews  in  Egypt,  we  arrive  at 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  127 

the  year  1780  B.  c.  as  the  approximative  date  of  the 
immigration  of  Jacob  into  Egypt,  and  for  the  time 
of  the  official  career  of  his  son  Joseph  at  the  court 
of  pharaoh.  In  other  words,  we  arrive  at  the  con- 
clusion that  the  time  of  Joseph  (1730  B.  c.)  must 
have  fallen  in  the  time  of  the  Hyksos'  domination, 
about  the  reign  of  the  previously  mentioned  foreign 
prince.  Nub  (1750). 

This  singular  coincidence  of  numbers,  as  we 
openly  admit,  appears  to  us  to  have  a  higher  value 
than  the  data  fixed  on  the  grounds  of  particular 
calculations  of  the  chronological  tables  of  Manetho 
and  the  fathers  of  the  church.  For  these  numbers 
neither  change  nor  rectify  the  great  building  of 
general  chronology.  Their  importance  is  of  quite 
a  different  character.  Independently  of  every  kind 
of  arrangement  and  combination  of  numbers,  ihey 
prove  the  probability  of  a  fixed  date  for  a  very 
important  section  of  the  general  history  of  the 
world  on  the  grounds  of  two  chronological  data, 
which  in  a  most  striking  way  correspond  with  one 
another,  and  of  which  each  separately  has  its  origin 
in  an  equally  trustworthy  and  respectable  source. 

The  supposition  that  Joseph  was  sold  into  Egypt 
and  afterwards  rose  to  great  honor  under  the  Hyk- 
sos, as  results  from  the  chronological  relations  we 
have  mentioned,  receives  fresh  support  for  its  prob-' 


128  TEE  TRUE  STORY  OF 

ability  from  a  Christian  tradition  preserved  by  Y. 
Syncellus.  According  to  this  tradition  '  received  by 
the  whole  world,'  Joseph  ruled  the  land  in  the  reign 
of  king  Aphophis  (Apopi  of  the  monuments),  whose 
age  within  a  few  years  corresponds  with  the  com- 
mencement of  the  eighteenth  dynasty. 

We  have  great  satisfaction  in  adding  another  very 
remarkable  and  clear  confirmation  of  our  remarks 
upon  the  time  of  Joseph  and  his  master  the  pharaoh. 
Upon  the  grounds  of  an  old  Egyptian  inscription 
hitherto  unknown,  whose  author  must  have  been  a 
contemporary  of  Joseph  and  his  family,  we  hope  to 
adduce  a  proof  that  Joseph  and  the  Hyksos  cannot 
henceforth  be  separated  from  one  another. 

As  a  previous  remark  we  will  recall  to  the  recol- 
lection of  our  readers  the  well-known  fact  that  in 
the  days  of  the  patriarch  in  Egypt  a  seven  years' 
famine  occurred,  the  consequence  of  a  deficiency  of 
water  in  the  overflowing  of  the  Nile  at  that  time.. 

This  inscription,  which  appears  to  us  so  impor- 
tant, exists  in  one  of  the  tombs  at  El-Kab,  of  which 
we  have  before  spoken  more  particularly.  From 
the  peculiarities  of  the  language,  and  from  the 
style  of  the  internal  pictorial  decoration  of  the  rock 
chambers,  but  principally  from  the  name  of  its 
former  possessor,  Baba,  we  may  consider  that  the 
tomb  was  erected  in  the  times  immediately  preced- 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  129 

ing  the  eighteenth  dynasty.  Although  no  royal  car- 
touche ornaments  the  walls  of  the  tomb  to  give  us 
certain  information  about  the  exact  time  of  its  erec- 
tion, yet  the  following  considerations  are  calculated 
to  inform  us  on  this  point,  and  fortunately  to  fill  up 
the  gaps. 

The  name  of  the  old  possessor  of  the  tomb,  Baba, 
is  already  well  known  to  us.  Among  the  members 
of  the  great  family  of  the  times  of  the  thirteenth 
dynasty,  whose  genealogical  tree  we  have  before  laid 
before  our  readers,  and  the  greater  number  of  whose 
tombs  are  situated  in  the  rocky  city  of  the  dead  at 
El-Kab,  Baba  appears  in  the  third  generation  as  the 
additional  name  of  a  certain  Sebek-tut,  the  father 
gf  queen  Nubkhas.  In  the  genealogical  tree  of  the 
family  of  the  Captain  Aahmes  at  El-Kab  the  name 
Baba  appears  on  another  occasion,  and  also  as  the 
second  appellation  of  our  hero,  Abana,  a  captain 
under  king  Ra-Sekenen  (Taa  III.).  Unless  we  are 
mistaken,  it  is  this  Baba  whose  tomb,  situated  near 
that  of  Aahmes  at  El-Kab,  promises  us  important 
disclosures.  For  the  whole  descendants  of  Aahmes, 
children,  and  grandchildren,  and  great-grandchil- 
dren, repose  in  their  ancestors'  tomb,  and  in  the 
excavations  of  the  rock  which  Pahir,  once  the  gov- 
ernor of  Eileithyia,  had  prepared  for  himself  and 
them.  We  should,  however,  in  vain  look  round  the 
9 


130  THE   TRUE  STORY  OF 

sepulchral  chambers  of  the  ancestors  of  Baba,  were 
it  not  for  the  rock  tomb  of  a  Baba  in  the  neiorhbor- 
hood  of  that  we  have  alread}^  mentioned.  The  in- 
scription, which  exists  in  the  hall  of  sacrifice  of  this 
tomb  on  the  wall  opposite  to  the  door  of  entrance, 
contains  the  following  simple  childlike  representa- 
tion of  his  happy  existence  on  earth,  owing  to  his 
great  riches  in  point  of  children : 

"  The  chief  at  the  table  of  princes,  Baba,  the 
risen  again,  he  speaks  thus :  I  loved  my  father,  I 
honored  my  mother  ;  my  brother  and  my  sisters 
loved  me.  I  stepped  out  of  the  door  of  my  house 
with  a  benevolent  heart ;  I  stood. there  with  refresh- 
ing hand,  and  splendid  were  the  preparations  of 
what  I  collected  for  the  feast-day.  Mild  was  (my) 
heart,  free  from  noisy  anger.  The  gods  bestowed 
upon  me  a  rich  fortune  on  earth.  The  city  wished 
me  health  and  a  life  full  of  freshness.  I  punished 
the  evil-doers.  The  children  which  stood  opposite 
to  me  in  the  town  during  the  days  which  I  have 
fulfilled  were  small  as  well  as  great,  60 ;  there  were 
prepared  for  them  as  many  beds,  chairs  (?)  as  many, 
tables  (?)  as  many.  They  all  consumed  120  Epha 
of  Durra,  the  milk  of  3  cows,  52  goats,  and  9  she- 
asses,  of  balsam  a  hin,  and  of  oil  2  jars. 

"  My  speech  may  appear  a  joke  to  some  opponent. 
But  I  call  as  witness  the  god  Month  that  my  speech 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  131 

is  true.  I  had  all  this  prepared  in  my  house  ;  in 
addition  I  gave  cream  in  the  pantry  and  beer  in  the 
cellar  in  a  more  than  sufficient  number  of  hin 
measures. 

*'  I  collected  the  harvest,  a  friend  of  the  harvest 
god.  I  was  watchful  at  the  time  of  sowing.  And 
now  when  a  famine  arose,  lasting  many  years,  I 
issued  out  corn  to  the  city  at  each  famine."  * 

There  ought  not  to  be  the  smallest  doubt  as  to 
whether  the  last  words  of  the  inscription  relate  to 
an  historical  fact  or  not;  to  something  definite  or 
something  only  general.  Strongly  as  we  are  inclined 
to  recognize  a  general  way  of  speaking  in ,  the 
narrative  of  Ameni,  where  '  years  of  famine '  are 
spoken  of,  here  we  are  compelled  by  the  context 
of  the  report  before  us  to  understand  the  term  '  the 
many  years '  of  the  famine  which  arose  as  relating  to 
a  definite  historical  time.  For  famines  following 
one  another  on  account  of  a  deficiency  of  water  in 
the  overflowing  of  the  Nile  were  of  the  greatest 
rarity,  and  history  knows  and  mentions  only  one 
example  of  it,  namely,  the  seven  years'  famine  of 
the  pharaoh  of  Joseph.  Besides,  Baba  (or  if  the 
term  is  preferred,  the  Babas,  for  the  most  part  the 
contemporaries  of  the  thirteenth  and  seventeenth 
dynasties),  about  the  same  time  as  Joseph  exercised 

*  Or  also,  '  to  each  hungry  person.' 


132  THE  TRUE  STORY  OF 

his  office  under  one  of  the  Hyksos  kings,  lived  and 
worked  under  the  native  king  Ra-Sekenen  (Taa  III.) 
in  the  old  town  of  El-Kab.  The  only  just  conclu- 
sion is  that  the  many  years  of  famine  in  the  time 
of  Baba  must  precisely  correspond  with  the  seven 
years  of  famine  under  Joseph's  pharaoh,  one  of  the 
shepherd  kings. 

We  leave  it  to  the  judgment  of  the  reader  to 
arrive  at  a  conclusion  on  the  probability  of  a  clear 
connection  between  the  two  different  reports  on  the 
same  extraordinary  occurrence.  The  simple  words 
of  the  biblical  account  and  the  inscription  in  the 
tomb  of  Baba  are  too  clear  and  convincing,  to  leave 
any  room  for  reproach  on  the  ground  of  possible 
error.  The  account  in  Holy  Scripture  of  the  eleva- 
tion of  Joseph  under  one  of  the  Hyksos  kings,  of  his 
life  at  their  court,  of  the  reception  of  his  father  and 
brothers  in  Egypt  with  all  their  belongings,  is  in 
complete  accordance  with  the  manners  and  customs, 
as  also  with  the  place  and  time. 

Joseph's  Hyksos-Pharaoh  reigned  in  Auaris,  or 
Zoan,  the  later  Ramses-town,  and  held  his  court  in 
the  Egyptian  style,  but  without  excluding  the  Se- 
mitic language.  His  pharaoh  has  proclaimed  before 
him  in  Semitic  language  an  Abrek,  that  is,  '  bow  the 
knee,'  a  word  which  is  still  retained  in  the  hiero- 
glyphic dictionary,  and  was  adopted  by  the  Egyptians 


THE  EXODUS  OF  ISRAEL.  133 

to  express  their  feeling  of  reverence  at  the  sight  of 
an  important  person  or  object.  He  bestows  on  him 
the  high  dignity  of  a  Zaphnatpaneakh,  'governor 
of  the  Sethroitic  nome."^  On  the  Egyptian  origin 
of  the  offices  of  an  Adon  and  Ab  which  Joseph 
attributes  to  himself  before  his  family,  I  have  al- 
ready made  all  the  remarks  that  are  necessary. 
The  name  of  his  wife  Asnat  is  pure  Egyptian  and 
almost  entirely  confined  to  the  old  and  middle  em- 
pire. It  is  derived  from  the  very  common  female 
name  Sant,  or  Snat.  The  father  of  his  wife,  the 
priest  of  On-Heliopolis,  is  a  pure  Egyptian,  whose 
name  Potiphera  meant  in  the  native  language 
Putiper'a  (or  pher'a),  'the  gift  of  the  sun.'  The 
chamberlain  who  bought  the  boy  Joseph  from  his 
brothers,  and  whose  wife  tempted  the  virtue  of  the 
young  servant,  was  Putipher,  a  name  which  could 
not  be  pronounced  in  Egyptian  otherwise  than 
Putipar  or  (phar),  'the  gift  of  the  risen  one.'  His 
titles  are  given  in  Semitic  language,  although  the 
word  Saris,  or  chamberlain,  is  found  written  with 
Egyptian  letters. 

*  Pa'anekh,  *  the  place  of  life,'  was  the  peculiar  designation  of 
the  capital  of  this  nome  in  the  holy  writing.  The  whole  long  word 
is  to  be  analyzed  into  its  component  parts  in  the  old  Egyptian  lan- 
guage. 

Za  p-    u  nt    p-     a       'anekh. 

*  Governor  of  the  district  of  the  place  of  life.' 


134  THE   TRUE  STORY  OF 

We  will  not  neglect  at  the  mention  of  Putipliar's 
wife  to  call  attention  to  the  passage  of  the  Orbiney 
papyrus,  which  at  the  same  time  is  calculated  to  cast  a 
bad  light  on  the  wantonness  of  the  Egyptian  women, 
but  which  before  all  things  stands  in  a  particular 
relation  to  the  history  of  Joseph.  Anepu,  a  married 
man,  sends  his  young  brother,  the  unmarried  hero 
of  the  story,  from  the  field  to  the  house  to  fetch  seed 
corn.  What  occurred  the  following  literal  transla- 
tion sufficiently  explains :  —  "  And  he  sent  his  little 
brother,  and  said  to  him,  '  Hasten  and  bring  us  seed 
corn  from  the  village.'  And  his  little  brother  found 
the  wife  of  his  elder  brother  occupied  in  combing 
her  hair.  And  he  said  to  her  '  Rise  up,  give  me 
seed  corn  that  I  may  return  to  the  field,  for  thus  has 
my  elder  brother  enjoined  me,  to  return  without 
delaying.'  The  woman  said  to  him,  '  Go  in,  open 
the  chest,  that  thou  mayst  take  what  thine  heart 
desires,  for  otherwise  my  locks  will  fall  to  the 
ground.'  And  the  youth  went  within  into  the 
stable,  and  took  thereout  a  large  vessel,  for  it  was 
his  will  to  carry  out  much  seed  corn.  And  he  loaded 
himself  with  wheat  and  Durra  corn,  and  went  out 
with  it.  Then  she  said  to  him,  '  How  great  is  the 
burden  in  thine  arms  ? '  He  said  to  her,  '  Twq 
measures  of  Durra  and  three  measures  of  wheat 
make    together   five    measures   which  rest  pn  my 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  135 

arms.'  Thus  he  spake  to  her.  But  she  spake  to 
the  3''outh  and  said,  '  How  great  is  thy  strength  ! 
Well  have  I  remarked  thy  power  many  a  time.' 
And  her  heart  knew  him  !  .  .  .  and  she  stood  np 
and  laid  hold  of  him,  and  she  said  to  him,  '  Come, 
let  us  celebrate  an  hour's  repose.  The  most  beauti- 
ful things  shall  be  thy  portion,  for  I  will  prepare 
for  thee  festal  garments.'  Then  was  the  youth  like 
to  the  panther  of  the  south  for  rage,  on  account  of 
the  evil  word  which  she  had  spoken  to  him.  But 
she  was  afraid  beyond  all  measure.  And  he  spoke 
to  her  and  said,  '  Thou,  O  woman,  hast  been  like  a 
mother  to  me,  and  thy  husband  like  a  father,  for  he 
is  older  than  I,  so  that  he  might  have  been  my 
begetter.  Why  this  great  sin  that  thou  hast  spoken 
to  me  ?  Say  it  not  to  me  another  time,  then  will 
I  this  time  not  tell  it,  and  no  word  of  it  shall  come 
out  of  my  mouth  to  any  man  at  all.'  And  he  loaded 
himself  with  his  burden  and  went  out  into  the  field. 
And  he  went  to  his  elder  brother,-  and  they  com- 
pleted their  day's  work.  And  when  it  was  evening 
the  elder  brother  returned  home  to  his  habitation. 
And  his  little  brother  followed  behind  his  oxen, 
which  he  had  laden  with  all  the  good  things  of 
the  field,  to  prepare  for  them  their  place  in  the 
stable  in  the  village.  And  behold  the  wife  of  his 
elder  brother  feared  because  of  the  word  which  she 


136  THE  TRUE  STORY  OF 

liad  spoken,  and  she  took  a  jar  of  fat,  and  she  was^ 
like  one  to  whom  an  evil-doer  had  offered  violence, 
since  she  wished  to  say  to  her  husband,  '  Thy  little 
brother  has  offered  me  violence.'  And  her  husband 
returned  home  at  evening,  according  to  his  daily 
custom,  and  found  his  wife  lying  stretched  out  and 
suffering  from  injury.  She  gave  him  no  water  for 
his  hands  according  to  her  custom.  And  the  can- 
dles were  not  lighted,  so  that  the  house  was  in  dark- 
ness. But  she  lay  there.  And  her  husband  spoke 
to  her  thus,  '  Who  has  had  to  do  with  thee  ?  Lift 
thyself  up  ! '  She  said  to  him,  '  No  one  has  had  to 
do  with  me  except  thy  little  brother,  since  when  he 
came  to  take  seed  corn  for  thee,  he  found  me  sitting 
alone,  and  said  to  me,  "  Come,  let  us  make  merry 
an  hour  and  repose  !  Let  down  thy  hair  !  "  Thus 
he  spake  to  me,  but  I  did  not  listen  to  him  (but 
said),  See  !  am  I  not  thy  mother,  and  is  not  thy 
elder  brother  like  a  father  to  thee  ?  Thus  spoke  I 
to  him,  but  he  did  not  hearken  to  my  speech,  and 
used  force  with  me,  that  I  might  not  tell  thee. 
Now  if  thou  alio  west  him  to  live,  I  will  kill  my- 
self.' " 

We  will  break  off  at  this  place  the  thread  of  the 
narrative  in  which  the  simple  mode  of  speech  and 
exposition  corresponds  in  the  most  striking  manner 
with  the  style  of  the  Bible.    What  we  want  to  point 


THE  EXODUS  OF  ISRAEL.  '     137 

out,  the  reader  of  the  foregoing  sentences  will  im- 
mediately perceive.  Potiphar's  wife  and  Anepu's 
wife  precisely  resemble  one  another^  and  Joseph's 
and  Bata's  resistance  and  virtue  appear  so  closely 
allied  that  one  is  almost  inclined  to  assign  a  com- 
mon origin  to  both  traditions.  In  any  case  the  pas- 
sage we  have  just  quoted  from  the  Egyptian  poem 
of  the  two  brothers  is  a  most  precious  and  important 
elucidation  of  the  history  of  Joseph  in  Egypt. 

That  Joseph  was  in  fact  clothed  with  the  highest 
rank  at  court  next  to  his  king  is  evident  from  the 
office  he  filled  of  an  Adon  '  over  all  Egypt ; '  (com- 
pare Genesis  xlv.  9.)  On  the  monuments  Adon 
answers  to  the  Greek  Epistates,  an  overseer,  one 
set  over  others.  The  rank  varied  according  to  the 
business  each  had  to  perform.  We  find  an  Adon  of 
the  Amon  town  Diospolis,  of  the  seat  of  justice,  of 
the  infantry,  of  the  royal  harem,  of  the  treasur}^  of 
the  workshops  of  pharaoh,  of  the  beer-cellars,  &c. 

IF 

The  office  of  Joseph  was  quite  different  as  an  'Adon 
over  the  whole  land,'  which  I  have  only  once  again 
found  in  an  old  Egyptian  inscription.  Before  king 
Horemheb  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty  (the  Horus  of 
Manetho)  ascended  the  throne,  according  to  the 
account  of  a  monument  preserved  at  Turin,  he  was 
clothed  with  several  very  high  offices,  which  brought 
him  near  to  the  person  of  the  king.     Finall}^  the 


138  THE  TRUE  STORY  OF 

pharaoh  was  so  pleased  with  his  good  services  that 
he  named  him  Ro-hir,  that  is  Epitropos,  or  Procu- 
rator of  the  whole  land.  In  this  capacity,  without 
having  any  one  to  share  his  authority  with  him,  he 
was  called  to  be  '  the  great  lord  in  the  king's  house,' 
and  '  he  gave  answer  to  the  king  and  pleased  him 
with  the  utterances  of  his  mouth.'  In  such'  a  ser- 
vice was  Horemheb  '  an  Adon  of  the  whole  land  for 
the  duration  of  many  years,'  until  he  rose  to  the 
position  of  '  heir  of  the  throne  of  the  whole  land,' 
and  finally  placed  the  royal  crown  on  his  head. 
We  see  from  this  that  an  '  Adon  of  the  whole  land ' 
was  so  important  a  position  that  Joseph,  in  fact, 
deserved  the  appellation  of  a  Moshel,  or  Shallith, 
that  is,  a  Prince  or  Regent  over  the  whole  land,  as 
Luther  translated  the  Hebrew  word.  "With  these 
remarks  on  Joseph,  we  will  conclude  this  portion  of 
the  history  of  the  middle  empire. 


THE  EXODUS  OF  ISRAEL.  139 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY.  —  THUTMES  III. 

Keeping  in  view  our  main  purpose,  of  dwelling 
chiefly  upon  such  portions  of  Egyptian  history  as 
concern  more  nearly  the  biblical  narrative,  a  large 
space  has  been  given  to  the  Hyksos  and  to  the 
relations  with  Semitic  tribes.  We  have  now  come 
to  the  eighteenth  dynasty,  which  succeeded  the 
foreign  domination.  Aahmes,  the  conqueror,  was 
the  first,  and  after  him  came  several  illustrious 
kings,  each  one  bearing  the  name  of  Thutmes  or 
Amenhotep.  In  many  respects  this  is  the  most  in- 
teresting period  in  the  long  annals.  Thutmes  III., 
perhaps  the  greatest  of  all  the  pharaohs,  reigned 
fifty-three  years,  and  was  justty  renowned  through- 
out all  the  known  world.  He  is  the  Alexander  the 
Great  of  Egyptian  history.  He  carried  on  no  less 
than  thirteen  campaigns  in  foreign  countries,  and 
made  the  power  of  Egypt  felt  in  the  heart  of  Africa, 
as  well  as  of  Asia.  Countless  memorials  of  his  reign 
exist  in  papyri,  on  temple  walls,  in  tombs,  and  even 
upon  scarabsei  and  other  ornaments. 


140  THE   TRUE  STORY  OF 

In  still  clear  characters  may  be  read  most  of  the 
accounts  of  these  wars,  the  numbers  of  troops  that 
were  engaged,  the  numbers  killed  and  taken  prison- 
ers, and  all  the  details  of  the  vast  booty  brought 
into  Egypt.  When  so  many  periods  are  in  utter 
darkness,  it  is  wonderful  that  such  full  records  exist 
of  this  great  reign.  The  statistician  can  easily  form 
an  idea  of  the  civilization  of  the  age  by  observing 
the  quantity  and  character  of  the  spoil  and  of  the 
tributes  afterwards  imposed  upon  the  conquered 
nations.  Both  the  quantity  and  the  character  of  the 
merchandise  fill  the  mind  of  the  modern  reader  with 
wonder.  Meanwhile  the  monarch  constructed  new 
temples  at  Thebes  and  enlarged  the  old  ones,  and 
everywhere  his  triumphs  were  blazoned.  The  Ro- 
man emperor  Germanicus,  as  Tacitus  has  recorded, 
saw  these  temples  and  their  inscriptions  when  their 
glory  had  not  been  so  far  obscured. 

Among  the  records  of  that  day  were  catalogues 
of  the  towns  and  cities  in  Syria  that  had  submitted 
to  the  Egyptian  arms.  One  of  these  catalogues  is 
filled  with  Semitic  names. 

What  gives  the  highest  value  to  the  catalogue  is 
the  undisputed  fact  that  more  than  three  hundred 
years  before  the  entrance  of  the  Jews  into  the  land 
of  Canaan,  a  great  league  of  peoples  of  the  same 
race,  which  the  monuments  call  by  the  name  of  the 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  141 

Ruthen,  existed  in  Palestine  under  little  kings,  who 
dwelt  in  the  same  towns  and  fortresses  as  we  find 
stated  on  the  monuments,  and  who  for  the  greater 
part  by  conquest  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Jewish 
immigrants.  Among  these  the  -king  of  Kadesh,  on 
the  Orontes,  in  the  land  of  the  Amorites  —  as  the 
inscriptions  expressly  state  —  played  the  first  part, 
since  there  obeyed  him,  as  their  chief  leader,  all  the 
kings  and  their  peoples  from  the  water  of  Egypt 
(which  is  the  same  as  the  biblical  brook,  which 
flowed  as  the  boundary  of  Egypt)  to  the  rivers  of 
Naharain,  afterwards  called  Mesopotamia.  To  these 
had  joined  themselves  the  Phoenician  Khalu,  who 
dwelt  in  the  country  on  the  sea-coast  called  Zahi  by 
the  Egyptians,  and  whose  capital  was  Aradus,  as 
also  the  Kiti  (the  Chittim  of  Holy  Scripture),  who 
possessed  the  island  of  Cyprus,  and  in  all  proba- 
bility the  sea-coast  lying  to  the  north  of  the  Phoeni- 
cians. The  triangle  between  the  points  Kadesh, 
Semyra,  and  Aradus,  represented  the  theatre  of  the 
hostile  engagements  which  have  been  so  often  men- 
tioned. 

An  unknown  poet,  out  of  the  number  of  the 
holy  fathers,  felt  himself  inspired  to  sing  in  mea- 
sured words  the  glory  of  the  king,  and  the  might 
and  grandeur  of  the  god  Amon.  His  song  has  out- 
lived the  ravages  of  time  and  the  enmity  of  man. 


142  THE   TRUE  STORY  OF 

Having  been  well  concealed,  the  tall  granite  tablet 
adorns  at  this  day  the  rooms  of  the  Egyptian  Mu- 
seum at  Boolaq.  As  Moses,  after  the  overthrow  of 
pharaoh  and  his  host  in  the  Reedy  Sea,  sang  a  fer- 
vent hymn  of  praise  to  exalt  the  wondrous  might 
and  strength  of  the  eternal  God,  so,  three  hundred 
years  before  the  wise  legislator  of  the  Jewish  peo- 
ple, the  nameless  seer  of  Amon  praised,  after  his 
own  fashion,  his  god  and  his  king.  Thus  run  his 
words :  — 

1.  "Come  to  me,"  said  Amon,  "  and  enjo}'  yourself,  and 

admire  my  excellences. 
Thou,  my  son,  who  honorest  me,  Thutmes  the  3d, 

ever  living. 
I  shine  in  the  hght  of  the  morning  sun  through  thy 

love. 

2.  And  m}^  heart  is  enraptured,  if  thou  directest  thy 

noble  step  to  my  Temple. 
I  stand  upright  there 

3.  In  my  dwelling. 

Therefore  will  I  mark  thee  out  as  wonderful.    I  give 

thee  power  and  victory  over  all  lands. 
All  people  shall  feel  a  terror  before  thy  soul, 
And  shall  fear  thee  to  the  utmost  ends  of  the  world, 
to  the 

4.  four  props  of  Heaven. 

I  let  thy  strength  grow  great  in  all  bodies. 

I  let  thy  war-cry  resound  in  all  the  lands  of  foreign 

peoples. 
Let  the  kings  of  the  world  be  all  at  once  in  thj^ 

grasp. 


THE  EXODUS  OF  ISRAEL.  143 

5.  I  stretch  out  my  own  hands. 

I  bind  thee  with  bands,  and  enclose  for  thee  the 
wandering  Nubians  to  ten  thousands  and  thou- 
sands. 

Those  who  inhabit  the  north,  let  them  be  taken 
prisoners  by  hundreds  of  thousands. 

6.  I  place  thy  gainsayers  under  thy  feet. 
Strike  the  host  of  thine  enemies. 

Also  I  give  thee  the  earth,  in  its  length  and  in  its 

breadth. 
Let  the  inhabitants  of  the  west  and  of  the  east  be 

thy  subjects. 

7.  Pass  through  with  joyful  heart  the  lands  which  none 

have  trodden  till  thy  time. 
I  will  be  thy  leader ;  reach  them ; 
pass  through  the  great  ring  of  water 

8.  In  the  land  of  Naharain,  in  full  victorious  power. 
It  is  my  will  that  the  peoples   hear  thy  war-cry, 

which  penetrates  to  their  caverns. 
I  have  taken  away  from  their  nostrils  the  breath  of 
life. 

9.  I  make  thy  manl}^  courage  penetrate  even  to  their 

hearts. 
My  crown  on  thy  head  is  a  consuming  fire ; 
It  goes  forth  and  conquers  the  false  brood  of  the 

Kittim. 

10.  By  the  sparkle  of  its  flames  the  lords  among  them 

are  turned  to  ashes. 
It  cuts  off  the  heads  of  the  'Aamu ;    they  cannot 

escape ; 
It  strikes  to  the  ground  whocA^er  turns  himself  round 

before  its  strength. 

11.  I  make  thy  victories  to  go  on  through  all  nations  ; 


144  THE   TRUE  STORY  OF 

M}^  rojal  serpent  shines  on  th}"  forehead, 

And  th}'  enemy  is  reduced  to  nothing  as  far  as  the 

horizon. 
They  come  and  bring  the  tribute  on  their  shoulders, 
And  bow  themselves 

12.  Before  thy  Holiness  ;  for  such  is  my  will. 

I  make  the  rebellious  ones  fall  down  exhausted  near 

thee, 
A  burning  fire  in  their  hearts,  and  in  their  limbs  a 

trembling. 

13.  I  came,  and  thou  smotest  the  princes  of  Zahi. 

I  scatter  them  under  thy  feet  over  all  their  lands. 
I  make  them  behold  thy  Holiness  like  the  beaming 

(sun). 
Thou  shinest  in  sight  of  th^m  in  my  form. 

14.  I  came,  and  thou  smotest  those  who  dwell  in  Asia. 
Thou  madest  prisoners  the  goatherds  of  Ruthen. 

I  make  them  behold  thy  Holiness  in  the  adornment 

of  th}'  ro3'al  dignity, 
As  thou  graspest  the  weapons  on  the  war-chariots. 

15.  I  came,  and  thou  smotest  the  land  of  the  East, 
Thou  earnest  to  those  who  dwell  in  the  territories  of 

the  Holy  Land. 
I  make  them  behold  thy  Holiness  like  the  star  Ca- 

nopus, 
"Which  pours  his  light  in  a  glance  of  fire 
When  he  disperses  the  morning  dew. 

16.  I  came,  and  thou  smotest  the  land  of  the  West, 
Kefa  (Phoenicia)  and  Asebi  (Cj'prus)  fear  thee. 

I  make  them  behold  thy  Hohness  like  a  young  bull. 
Full  of  courage,  when  he  whets  his  horns,  he  is  un- 
approachable. 

17.  I  came,  and  thou  smotest  the  subjects  of  their  lords  ; 


THE  EXODUS    OF  ISRAEL.  145 

The  land  of  Mathen  trembles  for  fear  of  tftee. 
I  make  them  behold  thy  Hohness  like  a  crocodile, 
The  terrible  one  in  the  water ;  he  is  not  to  be  en- 
countered. 

18.  I  came,  and  thou  smotest  the  islanders  in  the  middle 

of  the  great  sea  ; 
Thy  war-cr}'  is  over  them. 

I  make  them  behold  thy  Holiness  as  the  avenger, 
Who  appears  on  the  back  of  his  sacrifice. 

19.  I  came,  and  thou  smotest  the  land  of  the  Thuhen ; 
The  people  of  Uthent  is  in  thy  power. 

I  make  them  behold  thy  Holiness  as  a  lion,  with  a 

fierce  ej-e. 
Who  leaves  his  den  and  stalks  through  the  valleys. 

20.  I  came,  and  thou  smotest  the  hinder  lands, 

The  circuit  of  the  Great  Sea  is  bound  in  thy  grasp. 
I  make  them  behold  thy  Holiness  like  the  hovering 

sparrow-hawk. 
Which  seizes  with  his  glance  whatever  pleases  him. 

21.  I  came,  and  thou  smotest  the  lands  in  front ; 
Those  who  sit  upon  the  sand  thou  hast  made  pris- 
oners alive. 

I  make  them  behold  thy  Holiness  like  the  jackal  of 

the  south ; 
A  concealed  wanderer  he  passes  through  the  land. 

22.  I  came,  and  thou  smotest  the  nomad  tribes  of  Nubia, 
Even  to  the  land  of  Shat,  which  is  in  thy  grasp. 

I  make  them  behold  thy  Holiness  like  thy  pair  of 

brothers. 
Whose  hands  I  have  united  to  bless  thee. 

23.  As  for  th}^  pair  of  sisters,  I  make  them  shed  on  thee 

good  fortune  and  prosperity. 
My  hands  in  the  height  of  heaven  ward  oflT  misfortune  ; 

10 


146  ^^^^   TRUE  STORY  OF 

I  protect  thee,  my  beloved  son, 

The  powerful  bull,  who  didst  stand  np  as  king  va 

Thebes, 
Whom  I  have  begotten  out  of  [my  loins] , 

24.  Thutmes,  who  lives  for  evermore. 
Who  has  shown  all  love  to  my  Being. 

Thou  hast  raised  m}^  dwelling  in  long-lasting  works 
More  extensive  and  broader  than  they  have  ever  been- 
A  great  gate  [protects  against  the  entrance  of  tb** 
impious]. 

25.  Thou  hast  established  joyful  feasts  in  favor  of  Amon. 
Greater  are  thy  monuments  than  those  of  all  former 

kings. 

I  gave  thee  the  order  to  execute  them, 

And  thou  hast  understood  it. 

Therefore  I  place  thee  on  the  chair  of  Hor  for  never- 
ending  many  j'ears. 

Conduct  and  guide  the  living  generations  !  " 

The  foregoing  song  of  victory  of  the  unknown 
Theban  poet,  the  similar  songs  of  victory  in  honor 
of  the  kings  Ramses  II.  and  III.,  the  heroic  song  of 
the  poet  Pentaur  on  the  great  deeds  of  king  Ramses 
II.  during  his  campaign  against  the  king  of  Kadesh 
and  his  allies,  will  remain  for  all  times  unequalled 
specimens  of  the  old  Egyptian  language  at  its  high- 
est epoch. 

The  victories  of  the  heroic  king  Thutmes  III., 
who  during  his  numerous  campaigns  brought  the 
lands  and  cities  of  western  Asia  into  his  power,  to 


THE  EXODUS.  OF  ISRAEL.  147 

whom  Libya  and  the  peoples  of  Nubia  and  Ethi- 
opia, as  far  as  the  promontory  now  called  Gardafui 
opposite  the  south  coast  of  Arabia,  were  subject, — 
had  brought  to  Egypt  unnumbered  prisoners  of 
every  race,  who,  according  to  the  old  custom,  found 
their  fit  occupation  in  the  public  works.  It  was 
principally  to  the  great  public  edifices,  and  among 
these  especially  to  the  enlarged  buildings  of  the 
temple  of  Amon,  at  Ape  (near  Karnak),  that  the 
foreigners  were  forced  to  devote  all  their  labor, 
under  the  superintendence  of  the  Egyptian  archi- 
tects (Mer)  and  overseers  (Rois),  who  had  on  their 
part  to  carry  out  the  orders  and  directions  of  the 
royal  head  architect.  In  those  days  a  certain  Puara 
was  clothed  with  this  high  office  at  the  court  of 
pharaoh  ;  his  name  is  of  Semitic  origin,  meaning 
'  one  who  has  the  mouth  full  of  dinner.'  The  pris- 
oners were  obliged,  in  a  mannier  answering  to  their 
condition,  to  undergo  the  severest  labors  at  the 
buildings.  To  these  belonged  especially  the  bak- 
ing of  the  bricks,  as  it  is  portraj^ed  in  so  clear 
and  lively  a  manner  in  the  Book  of  Books  in  the 
description  of  the  oppression  of  the  children  of 
Israel  in  Egypt. 

Fate  has  preserved  to  us  on  the  walls  of  a  cham- 
ber in  a  tomb  in  the  interior  of  the  hill  of  Abd-el- 
Qurnah,  in  the  region  of  the  melancholy  *  coffin-hill' 


148  THE   TRUE  STORY  OF 

(Du-neb-ankh),  a  very  instructive  pictorial  repre- 
sentation, in  which  the  pencil  of  the  deceased  mas- 
ter has  portrayed  in  lively  colors  to  future  gen- 
erations the  industry  of  the  prisoners.  Far  more 
convincing  than  the  explanations,  written  by  the 
side  in  old  Egyptian  letters  and  words,  these  curi- 
ous drawings  themselves  allow  us  to  recognize  to 
their  full  extent  the  fate  and  the  severe  labor  of  the 
unfortunate  prisoners.  Some  carry  water  in  jugs 
from  the  tank  hard  by ;  others  knead  and  cut  up  the 
loamy  earth ;  others  again,  by  the  help  of  a  wooden 
form,  make  the  bricks,  or  place  them  carefully  in 
long  rows  to  dry ;  while  the  more  intelligent  among 
them  carr}^  out  the  Work  of  building  the  walls.  The 
words  which  are  added  as  explanations  of  each  occu- 
pation give  us  the  authentic  information  that  the 
laborers  are  captive  people  which  Thutmes  III.  has 
carried  away  to  build  the  temple  of  his  father  Amon. 
They  explam  that  the  '  baking  of  the  bricks '  is  a 
work  for  the  new  building  of  the  provision-house  of 
the  god  Amon,  of  Apet  (the  east  side  of  Thebes), 
and  they  finally  declare,  in  a  copious  manner,  the 
strict  superintendence  of  the  steward  over  the  for- 
eigners in  the  following  words :  "  (Here  are  seen) 
the  prisoners  which  have  been  carried  away  as  liv- 
ing prisoners  in  very  great  numbers ;  they  work  at 
the   building   with   active   fingers ;   their  overseers 


THE  EXODUS  OF  ISRAEL.  149 

<3how  themselves  in  sight;  these  insist  with  vehe- 
mence, obeying  the  orders  of  the  great  skilled  Lord 
(who  prescribes  to  them)  the  works,  and  gives  direc- 
tions to  the  masters  ;  (they  are  rewarded)  with  wine 
and  all  kinds  of  good  dishes ;  they  perform  their 
service  with  a  mind  full  of  love  for  the  king ;  they 
build  for  Thutmes  III.  a  Holy  of  Holies  for  (the 
gods),  may  it  be  rewarded  to  him  through  a  range 
of  many  years." 

The  overseer  (Rois)  speaks  thus  to  the  laborers 
at  the  building :  '  The  stick  is  in  my  hand,  be  not 
idle.' 

The  picture  and  the  words,  which  we  have  laid 
before  our  readers  exactly  as  they  have  been  trans- 
mitted to  us,  present  an  important  illustration  of 
the  accounts  in  the  Bible  concerning  the  hard  bond- 
age of  the  Jews  in  Egypt.  We  also  there  read,  '  And 
they  set  overseers  over  them,  who  oppressed  them 
with  hard  servitude,  for  they  built  for  pharaoh  the 
towns  of  Pithom  and  Raamses  as  treasure-cities.' 
'  And  they  made  their  life  hard  to  them  with  severe 
work  in  clay  and  brick.'  '  And  the  overseers  urged 
them  and  said.  Fulfil  your  day's  work.' 

The  severe  and  continuous  labor  so  represented 
was  bestowed  upon  the  various  great  temples  at 
Thebes ;  among  them  was  the  Sekhem,  or  Holy  of 
Holies  of  the  god  Amon,  and  the  stupendous  Hall 


150  THE   TRUE  STORY  OF 

of  Pillars,  called  Khu-mennu,  or  '  splendid  memo- 
rial,' which  was  dedicated  not  only  to  the  god  Amon, 
but  also  to  the  deified  rulers,  whom  Thutmes  III. 
acknowledged  as  his  legitimate  predecessors  on  the 
throne,  and  as  the  ancestors  of  his  own  house. 
Here,  in  one  of  the  chambers  situated  towards  the 
south,  was  found  that  celebrated  wall  of  the  kings 
which  is  known  to  science  under  the  designation  of 
the  Table  of  Kings  of  Karnak.  In  this  the  pharaoh 
traces  back  his  pedigree  to  his  great  ancestor  Se- 
noferu,  of  the  third  dynasty  (of  Memphis),  and 
reckons  the  kings  Assa,  Pepi,  the  petty  kings  of  the 
name  of  Antef,  the  famous  sovereigns  of  the  twelfth 
dynasty,  and  some  thirty  princes  of  the  thirteenth, 
as  his  ancestors. 

The  great  southern  propylsea  of  the  temple  have 
suffered  much  from  the  corroding  tooth  of  time  and 
the  destroying  hand  of  man.  But  even  the  remains 
which  have  survived,  a  heap  of  lonely  ruins,  enable 
us  to  judge  of  the  high  perfection  of  the  artistic 
powers,  which  created  such  almost  unrivalled  master- 
works,  and  were  able,  by  means  to  us  inexplicable, 
to  overcome  the  resistance  of  the  hardest  stone. 
Whether  we  suffer  our  attention  to  dwell  on  the 
way  in  which  these  great  masses  of  stone  have  been 
brought  together  and  united  in  a  complete  structure 
perfectly  well  arranged  and  producing  the  effect  of 


THE  EXODUS  OF  ISRAEL.  151 

symmetry  alike  in  the  whole  and  in  the  several 
parts ;  whether  we  feast  our  sight  upon  the  marvel- 
lous ornamental  work  in  stone,  by  means  of  which 
the  artist's  hand  had  the  skill  to  delight  us  with  a 
welcome  interruption  of  the  great  plain  surfaces; 
whether  we  gaze  with  astonished  eyes  upon  the 
indescribable  dignity  and  th^  kingly  mien  of  the 
remaining  statues  of  standing  or  sitting  pharaohs 
and  deities  ;  whether,  in  fine,  we  admire  the  sharp 
cutting  and  the  dexterity,  never  after  attained,  in 
the  drawing  of  the  hieroglyphics,  which  in  long 
lines  and  columns  cover  walls,  pillars,  and  sculp- 
tures, rather  as  ornaments  than  inscriptions :  wher- 
ever we  turn,  there  presents  itself  to  us  —  the  late 
heirs  to  that  long-buried  world  of  old  —  that  six- 
teenth century  before  our  era,  the  age  of  the 
Thutmes  and  their  immediate  successors,  as  the 
most  perfect  acmd  of  the  old  Egyptian  art,  as  grand 
in  its  conception  of  the  whole,  as  it  was  full  of  taste 
and  refinement  in  the  execution  of  the  several  parts. 
Dr.  Brugsch  devotes  a  large  space  to  the  various 
edifices,  obelisks,  and  statues  which  have  been  iden- 
tified by  himself  and  others  as  the  work  of  this  great 
king,  and  which  show  that  his  care  was  co-exten- 
sive with  his  dominion.  In  Nubia  and  in  the  island 
of  Elephantine,  in  ancient  Memphis,  in  various  cities 
in  the  north,  and  even  in  far  Mesopotamia,  the  evi- 
dences of  his  power  have  been  found. 


152  THE   TRUE  STORY  OF 

We  will  here  bid  farewell  to  the  greatest  king  of 
Egyptian  history ;  the  victorious  conqueror  and 
ruler  of  a  whole  world,  from  the  southernmost 
lands  of  inner  Africa  to  the  columns  of  heaven  in 
the  land  of  Naharain ;  to  the  founder  of  a  multitude 
of  new  temples,  to  the  upholder  of  the  temples  of 
his  forefathers,  to  th^  celebrated  benefactor  of  the 
servants  of  the  gods,  to  whom,  during  a  long  exist- 
^ence,  it  was  granted  by  the  divine  ones  to  see  per- 
petuated on  their  temple  walls  the  deeds  of  his 
arm  and  the  achievements  of  his  genius.  What 
wonder  then  that  his  contemporaries  already  wor- 
shipped him  while  alive  as  a  divine  being,  and 
allotted  to  him  after  his  death  the  honors  of  an 
inhabitant  of  heaven  ?  His  name  Was  inscribed  on 
thousands  of  little  images,  and  small  stone  scarabsei, 
which  were  used  for  rings ;  he  was  considered  as 
the  luck-bringing  god  of  the  country,  and  a  pre- 
server against  the  evil  influence  of  wicked  spirits 
and  magicians. 

Thus  the  memory  of  the  king  has  lasted  to  our 
days ;  and  it  is  not  by  accident  that  even  the  sons 
of  Europe  and  America,  whom  a  love  of  knowledge 
and  curiosity,  or  the  mild  air  of  the  Egyptian  heaven, 
leads  to  the  blessed  shores  of  the  Nile,  of  all  the 
pharaohs,  first  learn  the  name  of  Ra-men-kheper, 
which  Thutmes  III.  bore  in  his  cartouche. 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  153 


CHAPTER  IX. 

AMEKHOTEP  III.,  AND  KHUNATEN,  THE  HERETIC. 

The  great  Thutmes  was  succeeded  b}^  Amenho- 
tep  II.,  and  by  Thutmes  IV.,  both  vigorous  and 
renowned  kings.  The  next  in  the  line,  however, 
Amenhotep  III.,  was  far  more  illustrious.  There 
exists  a  famous  memorial  of  this  monarch  in  the 
form  of  a  pair  of  immense  statues  in  sitting  post- 
ure, of  which,  fortunately,  there  is  an  authentic 
account  written  by  the  sculptor  himself.  His  name, 
like  that  of  the  king,  was  Amenhotep. 

"My  lord  promoted  me  to  be  the  chief  architect.  I 
immortalized  the  name  of  the  king,  and  no  one  has  done 
the  like  of  me  in  my  works,  reckoning  from  early  times. 
For  him  was  created  the  sand-  stone  hill ;  he  is  indeed  the 
heir  of  the  god  Toom.  I  acted  according  to  what  seemed 
best  in  my  estimation,  inasmuch  as  I  executed  two  por- 
trait-statues of  noble  hard  stone  in  this  his  great  building. 
It  equals  heaven.  No  king  has  done  the  like  since  the 
time  of  the  reign  of  the  Sun-god  Ra,  who  possessed  the 
land.  Thus  I  executed  these  works  of  art,  his  statues  — 
(they  were  astonishing  for  their  breadth,  and  height  in  a 


154  THE   TRUE  STORY  OF 

perpendicular  direction :  their  completed  form  made  the 
propylon  look  small;  40  cubits  was  their  measure) — in 
the  splendid  sand-stone  mountain,*  on  its  two  sides, 
that  of  Ra  and  that  of  Toom  (that  is,  the  east  and  west 
sides). 

"  I  caused  to  be  built  eight  ships ;  they  (the  statues) 
were  carried  up  (the  river)  and  placed  in  their  sublime 
building.     Thej^  will  last  as  long  as  heaven. 

"  I  declare  to  you  who  shall  come  here  after  us,  that 
of  the  people  who  were  assembled  for  the  building,  every 
one  was  under  me.  They  were  full  of  ardor ;  their  heart 
was  moved  with  joy ;  they  raised  a  shout  and  praised  the 
gracious  god.  Their  landing  in  Thebes  was  a  joyful  event. 
The  monuments  were  raised  in  their  future  place." 

We  must  not  fail  here  to  remark  to  our  readers, 
that  the  statues  of  the  king,  of  forty  cubits  high 
(that  is,  twenty-one  metres,  or  nearly  seventy  Eng- 
lish feet),  mentioned  in  the  inscription,  are  the  two 
celebrated  statues  of  Memnon,  about  which  we  shall 
speak  presently.  The  measure  assigned  to  them  an- 
swers to  the  modern  measurements,!  and  so  does  the 

*  Perhaps  the  quarries  of  Silsilis  are  here  meant,  which  in  fact 
lie  on  the  east  and  west  sides  of  the  river,  and  the  inscriptions  of 
which  refer  to  these  works. 

t  According  to  actual  measurement,  the  height  of  the  sitting  fig- 
ures, from  the  crown  of  the  head  to  the  sole  of  the  feet,  is  14-28 
metres,  not  counting  the  destroyed  head-dress.  The  footstool  has 
a  height  of  4-25  metres.  The  whole  height  of  the  statues,  with 
the  foundation,  is  18 -53  metres.  According  to  the  above  inscrip- 
tion, which  gives  the  whole  a  height  of  21  metres,  the  head-dress 
must  be  reckoned  at  2-47  metres,  which  answers  exactly  to  the 
height  of  a  so-called  pshent-crown. 


THE  EXODUS  OF  ISRAEL.  155 

description  of  their  size,  which  must  have  made  the 
tower  gateway  (propylon)  which  stood  behind  them 
look  small.  Thus,  thanks  to  a  peculiar  ordering  of 
destiny,  which  has  preserved  to  us  his  own  statues, 
we. now  know  the  noble  lord  and  master  who  con- 
ceived the  plan  of  this  double  gigantic  work,  the 
size  and  extent  of  which  has  excited  the  greatest 
astonishment  and  unqualified  admiration  of  the  an- 
cients as  well  as  the  moderns.  It  was  the  head 
architect,  Amenhotep,  the  son  of  Hapoo,  who  had 
the  skill  to  create  them  in  the  sandstone  quarries  of 
Silsilis,  besides  building  the  temple. 

On  the  further  bank  of  the  river,  in  a  north- 
easterly direction  from  the  temple  of  Thutmes  III., 
in  Medinet  Abu,  a  new  temple  to  the  god  Amon 
was  raised  by  the  king's  command.  Its  site  is  indi- 
cated from  a  great  distance  by  the  gigantic  sitting 
statues  of  the  king,  the  fame  of  which  the  ancients 
spread  over  the  whole  world,  under  the  name  of  the 
Statues  of  Memnon.  Although  little  more  than  the 
foundation-walls  of  the  temple  itself  are  left,  yet  a 
memorial  tablet,  which  now  lies  thrown  down  on  its 
back,  bears  witness  to  the  size  and  importance  of 
the  original  building.  In  the  inscription  which 
adorns  its  surface,  there  is  described  a  dialogue  be- 
tween the  king  and  the  god.  First  the  king,  Amen- 
hotep III.,  speaks  thus : 


156  THE  TRUE  STORY  OF 

"  Come  then,  Amon-Ka,  lord  of  Thebes  in  Ape,  behold 
thy  dwelling,  which  is  prepared  for  thee  on  the  great  place 
of  Us  (Thebes)  ;  thy  glory  resides  in  the  western  part 
(of  the  city).  Thou  passest  through  the  heaven  to  unite 
thyself  with  her  (the  city),  and  thou  risest  on  the  circle 
of  heaven  (in  the  east)  ;  then  is  she  enlightened  by  the 
golden  beams  of  thy  countenance.  Her  front  turns  to- 
wards the  east,  &c. 

"  Thy  glory  dwells  in  her.  I  have  not  let  her  want  for 
excellent  works  of  lasting  beautiful  white  stone.  I  have 
filled  her  with  monuments  in  my  (name),  from  the  hill  of 
the  wonderful  stones.  Those  who  show  them  in  their 
place  are  full  of  great  joy  on  account  of  their  size.'* 

The  temple,  now  in  ruins,  was  carried  out  accord- 
ing to  the  plan  of  the  chief  architect,  the  same  who 
boasts  of  having  designed  the  two  gigantic  statues 
of  the  king  in  front  of  it. 

These  rise,  at  the  present  day,  like  two  solitary 
watchers  with  the  heaps  of  ruins  at  their  backs, 
on  the  cultivated  Theban  plain,  reached  every  year 
by  the  water  of  the  inundation,  which  often  mois- 
tens their  rigid  feet. 

The  two  statues  —  which  represent  king  Amen- 
hotep  in  a  sitting  position,  having  at  their  feet  small 
sitting  statues  of  his  wife  Thi,  and  of  his  mother, 
Mut-em-ua  —  are  carved  each  out  of  a  single  block 
of  a  firm  red-broWn  sandstone,  mixed  with  pieces 
of  white  quartz,  and  are  in  fact  marvellous  pro- 
ductions  of    treatment   in   the   hardest   and    most 


THE  EXODUS  OF  ISRAEL.  157 

brittle  material.  They  stand  at  a  distance  of 
twenty-two  feet  from  one  another.  The  northern 
one  is  that  which  the  Greeks  and  Romans  cele- 
brated in  poetry  and  prose  by  the  name  of  the 
vocal  statue  of  Memnon.  Its  legs  are  covered  with 
the  inscriptions  of  Greek,  Roman,  Phoenician,  and 
Egyptian  travellers,  written  to  assure  the  reader 
that  they  had  really  visited  the  place,  or  had  heard 
the  musical  tones  of  Memnon  at  the  rising  of  the 
sun. 

In  the  year  2T  b.  c,  in  consequence  of  an  earth- 
quake, the  whole  of  the  upper  part  of  the  statue 
was  removed  from  its  place  and  thrown  to  the 
ground.  From  that  time,  the  tourists  of  antiquity 
began  to  immortalize  themselves  by  scratching  their 
names,  and  adding  befitting  or  unbefitting  remarks. 
The  assurances  that  they  had  heard  Memnon  sing, 
or  rather  ring  (or  tinkle),  end  under  the  reign  of 
the  emperor  Septimius  Severus,  who  completed  the 
wanting  upper  part  of  the  body  as  well  as  he  could 
with  blocks  of  stone  piled  up  and  fastened  together. 
It  is  a  well-known  fact,  of  which  that  immortal 
master  of  science,  Alexander  von  Humboldt,  per- 
sonally assured  me,  that  split  or  cracked  rocks,  or 
stone  walls,  after  cooling  during  the  night,  at  the 
rising  of  the  sun,  as  soon  as  the  stone  becomes 
warmed,  emit   a  prolonged   ringing   (or    tinkling) 


158  THE  TRUE  STORY  OF 

note.  The  sudden  change  from  cold  to  heat  cre- 
ates quick  currents  of  air,  which  press  through  the 
crevices  of  the  rock,  and  emit  a  peculiar  melan- 
choly singing  tone.  When,  in  the  year  1851,  I 
chose  as  my  dwelling  for  some  months  the  temple 
of  Ape,  to  the  west  of  the  temple  of  Khonsu  at 
Karnak,  I  heard  of  a  morning,  after  the  sun  had 
been  some  time  up  in  the  heaven,  from  a  side  cham- 
ber warmed  by  it,  a  melancholy  note  like  that  of 
the  vocal  Memnon.  The  fact  was  so  well  known 
to  the  Arabs  who  lived  there,  that  they  showed  me 
this  very  chamber  as  that  where  the  death-watch 
struck.  After  the  statue  of  Memnon  had  been 
restored  in  the  manner  I  have  described,  the  sound 
naturally  ceased  of  itself.  The  crack  in  the  sand- 
stone was  covered  by  the  masonry  which  was  built 
up  over  it. 

The  historical  legend  of  the  vocal  Memnon  is 
thus  a  very  modern  story,  about  which  the  old 
Egyptians  knew  nothing.  The  song  of  Memnon, 
however  poetical  it  may  have  been  in  the  fancy  of 
antiquity,  must  be  at  once  struck  out  of  the  history 
of  Egypt.  In  its  place  the  dry  narrative  of  the 
Greek  historian  Pausanias  resumes  its  full  right, 
according  to  which  the  statue  was  that  of  a  man  of 
the  country,  by  name  Phamenoph,  that  is, '  Amen- 
hotep.'    We  know  now  who  this  Amenhotep  was, — 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  159 

a  king  of  that  name,  who,  in  spite  of  himself,  was 
made  the  Memnon  of  the  Greek  fable. 

The  architect  Amenhotep,  the  son  of  Hapoo, 
who  had  the  ability  to  execute  so  great  a  work, 
deserves  so  much  the  more,  the  honor  of  having  his 
name  perpetuated,  -as  he  independently  and  with- 
out any  order  from  the  king,  conceived  so  grand 
a  plan  and  carried  it  out  successfully.  It  was  not 
only  necessary  to  loosen  the  stone  from  the  rocks 
and  work  it,  but  also  to  entrust  the  vast  weight  to 
the  Nile,  and  to  convey  it  from  the  Theban  river- 
bank  to  its  proper  position.  He  was  obliged,  as 
he  himself  tells  us,  to  build  eight  ships,  in  order  to 
carry  the  burden  of  these  gigantic  statues.  Even 
in  our  highly  cultivated  age,  with  all  its  inventions 
and  machines,  which  enable  us  by  the  help  of 
steam  to  raise  and  transport  the  heaviest  weights, 
the  shipment  and  erection  of  the  statues  of  Mem- 
non remain  to  us  an  insoluble  riddle.  Verily  Amen- 
hotep, the  son  of  Hapoo,  must  have  been  not  only 
a  wise,  but  a  specially  ingenious  man  of  his  time. 

Amenhotep  IV.,  who  afterwards  adopted  the 
surname  of  Khu-n-aten,  had  a  singular  origin  and 
history.  He  stands  alone,  the  solitary  heretic  king. 
According  to  the  laws  of  descent,  he  was  not  in 
the  direct  line,  because  his  father  had  by  a  mis- 
alliance passed   over   the   hereditary  princesses  of 


160  THE  TRUE  STORY  OF 

the  royal  race.  The  priests  of  Amon  never  recog- 
nized him  as  a  lawful  ruler,  and  their  hostility  to 
hira  was  increased  by  his  aversion  to  the  worship 
of  Amon,  the  greatly  venerated  god  of  Egypt. 

In  the  house  of  his  mother  Thi,  the  daughter 
of  the  foreigner,  beloved  by  his  father,  hated  by 
the  priests,  the  young  prince  had  willingly  received 
the  teaching  about  the  one  God  of  Light ;  and 
what  the  mouth  of  his  mother  had  impressed  upon 
his  childish  mind  in  tender  youth  became  a  firm 
faith  when  he  arrived  at  man's  estate.  The  king 
was  so  little  prepared  to  renounce  the  new  doctrine, 
that  he  designated  himself  within  the  royal  car- 
touche itself  as  *a  high-priest  of  Hormakhu,'  and 
'a  friend  of  the  sun's  disk,'  Mi-aten.  Such  a 
heresy  in  the  orthodox  city  of  Amon,  full  of  tem- 
ples, was  at  once  deemed  an  unheard-of  thing  ; 
and  open  hate  soon  took  the  place  of  the  aversion 
which  had  existed  from  the  first.  To  the  great 
misfortune  of  the  king  himself,  his  outward  appear- 
ance betrayed,  in  a  very  unpleasing  manner,  his 
descent  from  his  foreign  mother. 

To  fill  up  the  measure  of  hatred  against  the  caste 
of  the  priests  of  Amon,  and  to  give  it  public  ex- 
pression, the  king  issued  a  command  to  obliterate 
the  names  of  Amon  and  of  his  wife  Mut  from  the 
monuments  of  his  royal  ancestors.      Hammer  and 


TEE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  161 

chisel  were  put  in  active  requisition  on  the  en- 
graved stones,  and  the  scribes  of  the  royal  court 
sought  with  care  the  places,  even  to  the  very  names 
of  his  forefathers,  in  which  the  word  Amon  met 
the  reader's  eye. 

The  discontent  of  the  priests  and  the  people  had 
reached  its  highest  point,  and  open  rebellion  broke 
out  against  the  heretic  king,  who,  ashamed  of  his 
honorable  baptismal  name  of  Amenhotep,  had  as- 
sumed the  new  name  Khunaten,  that  is,  '  splendor 
>f  the  sun's  disk,'  by  which  we  must  hencefor- 
ward designate  him. 

The  king,  under  the  conviction  that  he  could  not 
any  longer  remain  in  the  city  of  Amon,  determined 
to  turn  his  back  on  the  cradle  of  his  ancestors,  and 
to  found  a  new  capital,  which  he  called  Khu-aten, 
far  from  Memphis  and  Thebes,  at  a  place  in  middle 
Egypt,  which  at  this  day  bears  the  name  of  Tell- 
el-Amarna. 

Artists,  overseers,  and  workmen  were  summoned 
with  hot  haste.  According  to  the  plans  of  the 
king,  a  splendid  temple  was  erected  in  hard  stone, 
in  honor  of  the  sun-god  Aten,  composed  of  many 
buildings,  and  with  open  courts,  in  which  fire-altars 
"were  set  up.  The  plan  of  the  great  building  was 
new,  with  little  of  the  Egyptian  .character,  and 
arranged  in  a  peculiar  manner. 
11 


162  THE   TRUE  STORY  OF 

As  the  chief  official  who  was  set  over  the  king's 
house,  there  lived  at  the  court  of  this  pharaoh  a 
certain  Aahmes,  who  also  had  the  superintendence 
of  the  provision-houses  of  the  temple.  Next  to 
Meri-ra,  he  was  one  of  the  most  zealous  adherents 
of  the  new  teaching.  His  prayer  to  the  Sun,  which 
is  preserved  to  us  among  the  sepulchral  inscriptions 
at  Tell-el-Amarna,  will  confirm  this : 

"  Beautiful  is  thy  setting,  thou  Sun's  disk  of  life,  thou 
lord  of  lords,  and  king  of  the  worlds.  When  thou  unitest 
thyself  with  the  heaven  at  thy  setting,  mortals  rejoice 
before  thy  countenance,  and  give  honor  to  him  who  has 
created  them,  and  pray  before  him  who  has  formed  them, 
before  the  glance  of  thy  son,  who  loves  thee,  the  King 
Khunaten.  The  whole  land  of  Egypt  and  all  peoples 
repeat  all  thy  names  at  thy  rising,  to  magnify  thy  rising 
in  like  manner  as  thy  setting.  Thou,  O  God,  who  in 
truth  art  the  living  one,  standest  before  the  two  e^^es. 
Thou  art  he  which  createst  what  never  was,  which  formest 
everything,  which  art  in  all  things ;  we  also  have  come 
into  being  through  the  word  of  thy  mouth. 

"Give  me  favor  before  the  king  forever;  let  there 
not  be  wanting  to  me  a  peaceful  burial  after  attaining  old 
age  in  the  land  of  Khu-aten,  w^hen  I  shall  have  finished 
my  course  of  life  in  a  good  state. 

"■I  am  a  servant  of  the  divine  benefactor  (that  is  of 
the  king),  I  accompany  him  to  all  places  where  he  loves 
to  dwell.  I  am  his  companion  at  his  feet.  For  he  raised 
me  to  greatness  jsvhen  I  was  yet  a  child,  till  [the  da}^  of 
my]  honor  in  good  fortune.  The  servant  of  the  prince 
rejoices,  and  is  in  a  festive  disposition  every  day." 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  163 

In  these  and  similar  creations  of  a  poetic  form 
there  reigns  such  a  depth  of  view,  and  so  devout  a 
conception  of  God,  that  we  are  almost  inclined  to 
give  our  complete  assent  to  the  teaching,  about 
which  the  king  is  wont  to  speak  so  fully  and  with 
so  much  pleasure. 

His  royal  spouse  also,  Nofer-i-Thi,  was  deeply 
penetrated  with  the  exalted  doctrines  of  the  new 
faith,  which  to  contemporaries  appeared  in  the  light 
of  an  open  heresy  against  the  mysterious  traditions 
on  the  being  of  the  godhead  in  the  rolls  of  the  holy 
books  df  the  other  temples  of  the  land. 

According  to  the  wall-pictures  in  two  sepulchral 
chambers  in  the  hills  behind  the  town,  the  pharaoh 
Khunaten  enjoyed  a  very  happy  family  life.  Sur- 
rounded by  his  daughters  and  wife,  who  often,  from 
a  high  balcony,  threw  down  all  kinds  of  presents  to 
the  crowd  which  stood  below,  the  mother  holding 
on  her  lap  the  little  Ankh-nes-aten,  —  he  reached 
a  state  of  the  highest  enjoyment,  and  found  in  the 
love  of  his  family,  and  the  devout  adoration  of  his 
god,  indemnification  for  the  loss  of  the  attachment 
of  the  '  holy  fathers '  and  of  a  great  part  of  the 
people.  The  widowed  queen-mother  Thi  also  shared 
this  family  happiness,  and  thus  we  find  her  sitting 
in  peaceful  intercourse  with  her  son  and  his  wife,  in 
the  hall  of  the  royal  palace. 


164  THE  TRUE  STORY  OF 

King  Khunaten  gave  remarkable  expression  to  his 
love  for  his  relations  by  three  rock  pictures,  with 
inscriptions  all  to  the  same  effect,  which  remain  oq 
the  steep  face  of  the  rock  near  the  city  of  Khu-aten, 
but  are  barely  within  reach  of  the  eye.  The  king 
and  queen  are  seen  in  the  upper  compartment,  rais- 
ing their  hands  in  an  attitude  of  prayer  to  the  god 
of  light,  whose  disk  rises  over  their  heads  in  the 
full  splendor  of  his  beams,  each  ray  of  the  sun 
terminating  in  a  hand  dispensing  life.  Two  daugh- 
ters, Meri-aten  and  Mak-aten,  accompany  their  royal 
parents. 

Here  is  one  paragraph  of  the  inscription  : 

"  Thereupon  King  Khunaten  swore  an  oath  to  his 
father  thus  :  Sweet  love  fills  my  heart  for  the  queen,  for 
her  young  children.  Grant  a  great  age  to  the  Queen 
Nofri-Thi  in  long  years  ;  may  she  keep  the  hand  of  Pha- 
raoh. Grant  a  great  age  to  the  royal  daughter  Meri- 
aten,  and  to  the  royal  daughter  Mak-aten,  and  to  their 
children ;  may  they  keep  the  hand  of  the  queen,  their 
mother,  eternally  and  forever." 

This  meniorial,  in  the  form  of  a  rock  tablet,  re- 
mains to  this  day. 

King  Khunaten  died  without  male  issue,  —  possi- 
bly by  violence,  —  and  his  three  sons-in-law  in  turn 
succeeded  him  upon  the  throne.  But  neither  of 
them  had  the  favor  of  the  priests,  and  their  hold 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  165 

upon  the  supreme  power  was  short.  A  certain  Ai, 
who  had  been  master  of  the  horse  under  king  Khu- 
naten,  seized  upon  the  empire  ;  and,  as  he  brought 
back  the  worship  to  the  old  temples  and  reinstated 
the  old  priests  in  power,  he  had  a  prosperous  reign, 
and  went  through  the  usual  campaigns  against  the 
neighbors  of  Egypt.  During  his  reign  all  possible 
damage  was  inflicted  upon  the  works  of  the  mono- 
theist  king  Khunaten,  with  the  intent  to  blot  out 
his  name  from  the  earth.  Ai  was  succeeded  by 
Horemhib,  or  Horus,  who  had  no  shadow  of  title, 
except  that  his  wife  was  sister  to  a  former  queen. 
His  reign  seems  to  have  been  more  than  ordinarily 
brilliant ;  and  full  particulars  of  his  coronation  and 
memorials  of  his  deeds  are  preserved  in  a  papyrus 
preserved  at  Turin,  of  which  Dr.  Brugsch  gives  a 
full  and  stately  translation. 

We  give  the  concluding  portion.  The  gods  of 
Egypt  are  represented  as  having  assembled  to  wel- 
come and  to  crown  the  new  pharaoh : 

"  Then  came  forth  from  the  palace  the  holiness  of 
this  splendid  god  Amon,  the  king  of  the  gods,  with 
his  son  before  him,  and  he  embraced  his  pleasant 
form,  which  was  crowned  with  the  royal  helmet,  in 
order  to  deliver  to  him  the  golden  protecting  image 
of  the  sun's  disk.  The  nine  foreign  nations  were 
under  his  feet,  the  heaven  was  in  festive  disposi- 


166  THE   TRUE  STORY  OF 

tion,  the  land  was  filled  with  ecstasy,  and  as  for 
the  divinities  of  Egypt,  their  souls  were  full  of 
pleasant  feelings.  Then  the  inhabitants,  in  high 
delight,  raised  towards  heaven  the  song  of  praise ; 
great  and  small  lifted  up  their  voices,  and  the  whole 
land  was  moved  with  joy. 

"  After  this  festival  in  Ape  of  the  southern  coun- 
try was  finished,  then  went  Amon,  the  king  of  the 
gods,  in  peace  to  Thebes,  and  the  king  went  down 
the  river  on  board  of  his  ship,  like  an  image  of 
Hormakhu.  Thus  had  he  taken  possession  of  this 
land,  as  was  the  custom  since  the  time  of  the  sun- 
god  Ra.  He  renewed  the  dwellings  of  the  gods, 
from  the  shallows  of  the  marsh-land  of  Nathu  as 
far  as  Nubia.  He  had  all  their  images  sculptured, 
each  as  it  had  been  before,  more  than  .  .  .  And  the 
sun-god  Ra  rejoiced,  when  he  beheld  (that  renewed) 
which  in  former  times  had  been  destroyed.  He  set 
them  up  in  their  temple,  and  he  had  a  hundred 
images  made,  one  for  each  of  them,  of  like  form, 
and  of  all  kinds  of  costly  stones.  He  visited  the 
cities  of  the  gods,  which  lay  as  heaps  of  rubbish  in 
this  land,  and  he  had  them  restored  just  as  they  had 
been  from  the  beginning  of  all  things.  He  took 
care  for  their  daily  festival  of  sacrifice,  and  for  all 
the  vessels  of  their  temples,  formed  out  of  gold  and 
silver.     He  provided  them  (the  temples)  with  holy 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  167 

persons  and  singers,  and  with  the  best  of  the  body- 
guards ;  and  he  presented  to  them  arable  land  and 
cattle,  and  supplied  them  with  all  kinds  of  provi- 
sions which  they  required,  to  sing  thus  each  new 
morning  to  the  sun-god  Ra :  '  Thou  hast  made  the 
kingdom  great  for  us  in  thy  son,  who  is  the  conso- 
lation of  thy  soul,  king  Horemhib.  Grant  him  the 
continuance  of  the  thirty  years'  feasts,  give  him  the 
victory  over  all  countries,  as  to  Hor,  the  son  of  Isis, 
towards  whom  in  like  manner  thy  heart  yearned  in 
On,*  in  the  company  of  thy  circle  of  gods.'  "  - 

*  Heliopolis. 


168  TUE   TRUE  STORY  OF 


CHAPTER   X. 

THE  PHAKAOH   OF   THE   OPPRESSION. 

The  nineteenth  dynasty  began  with  Ramses  I., 
a  monarch  of  little  renown.  He  was  succeeded  by 
his  son  Mineptah  I.,  Seti  I.,  commonly  known  as 
Seti,  a  famous  warrior,  who  pushed  his  armies  in 
every  direction  and  inflicted  the  severest  punish- 
ment upon  every  nation  that  resisted.  The  weight 
of  his  wrath  fell  upon  the  unhappy  Canaanites  and 
the  Shasu  (ancestors  of  the  modern  Arabs).  A 
contemporary  record  says  :  "  His  joy  is  to  undertake 
the  battle,  and  his  delight  is  to  dash  into  it.  His 
heart  is  only  satisfied  at  the  sight  of  the  stream  of 
blood  when  he  strikes  off  the  heads  of  his  enemies. 
A  moment  of  the  struggle  of  men  is  dearer  to  him 
than  a  day  of  pleasure.  He  slays  them  with  one 
stroke,  and  spares  none  among  them." 

He  carried  his  victorious  arms  to  Mount  Lebanon, 
and  when  he  returned  to  Egypt  brought  numbers 
of  tall  cedars  for  masts,  and  for  flagstaffs  to  adorn 
Theban  temples. 

The  buildings  erected  in  this  reign,  especially  the 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  169 

temples,  are  grand  specimens  of  the  art.  These 
concessions  to  the  priests,  however,  did  not  in  their 
estimation  counterbalance  the  injury  done  to  the 
national  religion  by  the  king's  worship  of  foreign 
deities.  He  was  wholly  devoted  to  the  service  of 
the  Canaanitish  god  Baal  (so  often  mentioned  in 
Scripture),  whose  second  name,  Set,  was  reproduced 
in  his  own,  Seti. 

When  his  son  Ramses  II.  was  twelve  years  old  he 
was  associated  with  his  father  in  the  government ; 
and  his  reign  extended  to  not  less  than  sixty-seven 
years,  so  that  he  was  nearly  eighty  years  of  age  at 
the  time  of  his  death. 

Ramses  II.  is  sometimes  called  Ramses  Miamun, 
and  one  of  the  royal  prefixes  is  Soter-en-ra. 

This  is  the  king  who  above  all  others  bears  the 
name  of  honor  of  A-nakhtu,  '  the  Conqueror,'  and 
whom  the  monuments  and  the  rolls  of  the  books 
often  designate  by  his  popular  names  of  Ses,  Ses- 
tesu,  Setesu,  or  Sestura,  that  is,  the  ^  Sethosis,  who 
is  also  called  Ramesses '  of  the  Manethonian  record, 
and  the  renowned  legendary  conqueror  Sesostris  of 
the  Greek  historians. 

TJie  number  of  his  monuments,  which  still  to  the 
present  day  cover  the  soil  of  Egypt  and  Nubia  in 
almost  countless  numbers,  as  the  ruined  remnants 
of  a  glorious  past,  or  are  daily  brought  to  light  from 


170  THE  TRUE  STORY  OF 

their  concealment,  is  so  great  and  almost  countless, 
that  the  historian  of  his  life  and  deeds  finds  himself 
in  a  difficulty  where  to  begin,  how  to  spin  together 
the  principal  threads,  and  where  to  end  his  work. 

The  first  care  of  Ramses  after  his  father's  death 
was  to  restore  the  dilapidated  temples  and  public 
buildings,  to  set  up  statues,  and  to  engrave  last- 
ing memorials  of  his  ancestors,  not  forgetting  his 
own  extraordinary  merits.  On  the  wall  of  a  temple 
at  Abydus  is  still  to  be  seen  an  inscription,  of  which 
the  translation  occupies  over  eight  closely  printed 
octavo  pages.  This  is  wholly  occupied  with  an 
account  of  the  great  works  done  by  the  king  in  the 
restoration  of  ancient  edifices  and  in  brightening 
the  records  of  history.  The  style  is  ornate  and  at 
times  poetical,  full  of  figures  and  of  bold  apostro- 
phes, and  at  the  same  time  wonderfully  like  that  of 
the  biblical  writers.  But  Ramses  appears  to  have 
been  a  boaster,  and  his  real  works  are  far  inferior 
to  those  of  his  father,  the  ferocious  Seti. 

It  is  scarcely  worth  while  to  relate  what  Ramses 
II.  did  for  the  buildings  of  his  father  at  Abydus. 
In  the  course  of  his  long  reign  the  king  completed 
the  temple.  When  the  great  building  was  finished, 
he  must  have  been  advanced  in  years,  since  not  less 
than  sixty  sons  and  fifty-nine  daughters  greeted  in 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  171 

their  pictures  the  entrance  of  the  pilgrims  at  the 
principal  gate.  In  proportion  as  the  works  executed 
under  Seti,  the  father,  present  to  the  astonished 
eyes  of  the  beholder  splendid  examples  of  Egyp- 
tian architecture  and  sculpture,  just  so  poor  and 
inferior  are  the  buildings  which  were  executed 
under  the  reign  of  Ramses,  and  which  bear  the 
names  of  the  Conquering  King.  The  feeling  also 
of  gratitude  towards  his  parent  seems  to  have  grad- 
ually faded  away  with  Ramses,  as  years  increased 
upon  him,  to  such  a  degree,  that  he  did  not  even 
deem  it  wrong  to  chisel  out  the  names  and  memo- 
rials of  his  father  in  many  places  of  the  temple 
walls,  and  to  substitute  his  own. 

Ramses  II.,  like  most  of  his  predecessors,  carried 
on  foreign  wars,  especially  against  the  Khita  or 
inhabitants  of  Canaan.  He  obtained  a  doubtful 
victory  over  them  at  Kadesh  ;  and  as  he  "came  out 
of  the  fight  alone,  and  preserved  his  life  by  his  per- 
sonal braverv,  the  event  was  celebrated  in  the  most 
extravagant  manner.  The  long  and  boastful  ac- 
counts of  this  action  and  of  the  campaign  were 
sculptured  upon  temple  walls,  and  were  illustrated 
by  battle-scenes  containing  multitudes  of  figures, 
including,  of  course,  the  effigies  of  the  conqueror 
himself.  These  vast  pictured  tablets  are  among  the 
most  valuable  of  historical  monuments.     The  same 


172  THE   TRUE  STORY  OF 

exploit  was  made  the  occasion  of  a  long  heroic 
poem,  the  earliest  of  war  lyrics  preserved  to  us. 

The  temple-scribe,  Penta-ur,  a  jovial  companion, 
who,  to  the  special  disgust  of  his  old  teacher,  mani- 
fested a  decided  inclination  for  wine,  women,  and 
song,  had  the  honor,  in  the  seventh  year  of  Ramses 
II.,  to  win  the  prize  as  the  composer  of  an  heroic 
song,  a  copy  of  which  we  not  only  possess  in  a 
roll  of  papyrus,  but  its  words  cover  the  whole  sur- 
face of  walls  in  the  temples  of  Abydus,*  Luqsor, 
Karnak,  the  Ramesseum  at  Ibsambool,  in  order  to 
call  the  attention  of  the  visitor,  even  at  a  distance, 
to  the  deeds  of  Ramses. 

The  fact  that  it  was  engraved  on  the  temple 
walls,  and  on  the  hard  stone,  may  serve  as  a  proof 
of  the  recognition  which  was  accorded  to  the  poet 
by  the  king  and  his  contemporaries.  And,  indeed, 
even  our  own  age  will  hardly  refuse  to  applaud 
this  work,  although  a  translation  cannot  reach  the 
power  and  beauty  of  the  original.  Throughout 
the  poem  the  peculiar  cast  of  thought  of  the  Egyp- 
tian poet  fourteen  centuries  before  Christ  continu- 
ally shines  out  in  all  its  fulness,  and  confirms  our 
opinion,  that  the  Mosaic  language  exhibits  to  us  an 
exact  counterpart  of  the  Egyptian  mode  of  speech. 

♦  The  parts  of  this  temple  which  were  dug  out  have  been  again 
carefully  covered  up  with  sand. 


THE  EXODUS  OF  ISRAEL.  173 

The  whole  substance  of  thought  of  minds  living  at 
the  same  time,  and  in  society  with  each  other,  must 
needs  have  tended  towards  the  same  conception 
and  form,  even  though  the  idea  which  the  one  had 
of  God  was  essentially  different  from  the  views  of 
the  other  concerning  the  nature  of  the  Creator  of 
all  things. 

From  the  poet  we  pass  to  the  unknown  painter 
and  sculptor,  who  has  chiselled  in  deep  work  on  the 
stone  of  the  same  wall,  with  a  bold  execution  of 
the  several  parts^  the  procession  of  the  warriors, 
the  battle  before  Kadesh,  the  storming  of  the  for- 
tress, the  overthrow  of  the  enemy,  and  the  camp 
life  of  the  Egyptians.  The  whole  conception  must 
even  at  this  day  be  acknowledged  to  be  grand  be- 
yond measure,  for  the  representation  sets  before  our 
eyes  the  deeds  which  were  performed  more  vividly 
than  any  description  in  words  and  with  the  richest 
handling  of  the  material,  and  displays  the  whole 
composition  even  to  its  smallest  details. 

The  poem  of  Penta-ur  (Penta  the  Great)  is  doubt- 
less full  of  fire,  and  is  a  priceless  relic ;  but  it  is 
too  long  for  the  limits  of  this  work,  and  no  satis- 
factory abridgment  could  be  made  of  it.  The  song 
of  triumph  attributed  to  Moses  in  the  book  of  Exo- 
dus came  a  generation  later. 

After  a  long  war,  a  peace  was  made  at  the  city  of 


174  THE   TRUE  STORY  OF 

Ramses,*  between  the  two  most  powerful  nations  of 
the  world  at  that  time,  Khita  in  the  east,  and  Kemi 
in  the  west.  It  was  to  be  hoped  that  the  new  offen- 
sive and  defensive  alliance,  which  united  the  princes 
and  countries  in  the  manner  thus  described,  would 
attain  its  end,  and  bridle  the  fermenting  restless 
world  of  the  people  of  the  Canaanites,  which  lay 
between  them,  and  keep  down  every  rising  and 
movement  of  the  hostilely  disposed  Semites,  and 
confine  them  within  the  limits  once  for  ail  fixed. 
For  that  a  ferment  existed,  even  in  the  inmost  heart 
of  the  Egyptian  land,  is  sufficiently  proved  by  the 
allusion  in  the  treaty  to  the  evasions  of  evil-disposed 
subjects.  We  may  perhaps  read  between  the  lines 
that  the  Jewish  people  are  meant,  who,  since  their 
migration  into  the  land  of  Egypt,  had  increased 
beyond  measure,  and  without  doubt  were  already 
making  preparations  to  withdraw  themselves  from 
the  power  of  their  oppressors  on  the  banks  of  the 
Nile.  But  how?  and  when?  —  this  was  hidden  in 
the  councils  of  the  Eternal. 

Although  Ramses  raised  his  monuments  in  Thebes, 
and  went  up  to  the  old  capital  of  the  empire  to  cele- 

*  The  ancient  name  of  the  city  was  Zoan,  often  written  Zoan- 
Tanis,  because  situate  in  the  Tanitic  nome.  Wlien  Ramses  II. 
made  it  tlie  royal  residence  it  was  called  Pi-Ramses  (city  of  Ram- 
ses), or  sometimes  Zoan-Ramses.  It  is  called  in  the  book  of 
Exodus  Raamses. 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  175 

brate  the  festival  of  Amon ;  although  he  held  public 
courts  iu  Memphis,  to  take  counsel  about  the^  gold- 
fields  in  the  Nubian  country ;  although  he  visited 
Abydus,  to  see  the  tombs  of  the  kings  and  the 
temple  of  the  dead  built  by  his  father ;  —  not  to 
mention  Heliopolis,  in  which  he  dedicated  a  temple 
and  obelisks  to  the  sun-god; — yet  neither  these  nor 
other  cities  formed  his  permanent  abode.  On  the 
eastern  frontier  of  Egypt,  in  the  lowlands  of  the 
Delta,  in  Zoan-Tauis,  was  the  proper  royal  residence 
of  the  pharaoh. 

We  have  often  mentioned  this  city,  and  have  come 
to  understand  its  important  position.  Connected 
with  the  sea,  being  situated  on  the  then  broad  and 
navigable  Tanitic  arm  of  the  Nile,  it  commanded 
also  the  entrance  of  the  great  road,  covered  by 
'  Khetams,'  or  fortresses,  which  led  to  Palestine 
either  in  a  north-easterly  direction  through  Pelu- 
sium,  or  in  an  easterly  direction  through  Migdol,  on 
the  royal  road.  Zoan-Tanis  was,  in  the  proper  sense 
of  the  word,  the  key  of  Egypt.  Impressed  with  the 
importance  of  the  position  of  this  '  great  city,'  Ra- 
messu  transferred  his  court  to  Zoan,  strengthened 
its  fortifications,  and  founded  a  new  temple-city. 

The  hieratic  rolls  of  papyrus,  which  have  outlived 
the  ravages  of  time,  with  one  voice  designate  the 
newly  founded   temple-city  (for   the   kings  of  the 


176  THE   TRUE  STORY  OF 

eighteenth  dynasty  had  quite  abandoned  the  old 
Zoan)  as  the  central  point  of  the  court  history  of 
Egypt.  Here  resided  the  scribes,  who  in  their  let- 
ters have  left  behind  for  us  the  manifold  informa- 
tion which  the  life  at  the  court,  the  ordinances  of 
the  king  and  of  the  chief  officials,  and  their  rela- 
tions with  their  families  in  the  most  distant  parts 
of  the  country,  required  them  to  give  without 
reserve.  Zoan,  or,  as  the  place  is  henceforth 
called,  Pi-Ramessu,  '  the  city  of  Ramses,'  became 
henceforward  the  especial  capital  of  the  empire. 

It  will  be  useful  to  the  reader  to  hear  in  what  man- 
ner an  Egyptian  letter-writer  described  the  impor- 
tance of  this  town  on  the  occasion  of  his  visit  to  it : 

*'  So  I  arrived  .in  the  city  of  Ramses-Miamun,  and  I 
have  found  it  excellent,  for  nothing  can  compare  with 
it  on  the  Theban  land  and  soil.  (Here  is  the  seat)  of  the 
court.  It  is  pleasant  to  live  in.  Its  fields  are  full  of 
good  things,  and  life  passes  in  constant  plenty  and  abun- 
dance. Its  canals  are  rich  in  fish,  its  lakes  swarm  with 
birds,  its,meadows  are  green  with  vegetables,  there  is  no 
end  of  the  lentils  ;  melons  with  a  taste  like  honey  grow  in 
the  irrigated  fields.  Its  barns  are  fall  of  wheat  and  durra, 
and  reach  as  high  as  heaven.  Onions  and  sesame  are  in 
the  enclosures,  and  the  apple-tree  blooms.  (?)  The  vine, 
the  almond-tree,  and  the  fig-tree  grow  in  the  gardens. 
Sweet  is  their  wine  for  the  inhabitants  of  Kemi.  The}'- 
mix  it  with  honey.  The  red  fish  is  in  the  lotus-canal,  the 
Borian-fish  in  the  ponds,  many  kinds  of  Bori-fish,  besides 


THE  EXODUS  OF  ISRAEL.  177 

carji  and  pike,  in  the  canal  of  Pu-harotha ;  fat  fish  and 
Khipti-pennu  fish  are  in  the  pools  of  the  inundation,  the 
Hauaz-fish  in  the  full  mouth  of  the  Nile,  near  the  '  city 
of  the  conqueror '  (Tanis) .  The  city-canal  Pshenhor  pro- 
duces salt,  the  lake  region  of  Pahir  natron.  Their  sea- 
ships  enter  the  harbor,  plenty  and  abundance  is  perpetual 
in  it.  He  rejoices  who  has  settled  there.  Mj^  information 
is  no  jest.  The  common  people,  as  well  as  the  higher 
classes,  say,  '  Come  hither !  let  us  celebrate  to  him  his 
heavenly  and  his  earthly  feasts.'  The  inhabitants  of  the 
reedy  lake  (Thufi)  arrived  with  lilies,  those  of  Pshensor 
with  pap3'rus  flowers.  Fruits  from  the  nurseries,  flowers 
from  the  gardens,  birds  from  the  ponds,  are  dedicated  to 
him.  Those  who  dwell  near  the  sea  came  with  fish,  and 
the  inhabitants  of  their  lakes  honored  him.  The  youths 
of  the  '  Conqueror's  city '  were  perpetuall}'  clad  in  festive 
attire.  Fine  oil  was  on  their  heads  of  fresh-curled  hair. 
They  stood  at  their  doors,  their  hands  laden  with  branches 
and  flowers  from  Pahathor,  and  with  garlands  from  Pahir, 
on  the  day  of  the  entry  of  king  Ramessu-Miaraun,  the  god 
of  war  Monthu  upon  earth,  in  the  early  morning  of  the 
monthly  feast  of  Kihith  (that  is,  on  the  1st  of  Khoiakh). 
All  people  were  assembled,  neighbor  with  neighbor,  to 
bring  forward  their  complaints. 

"  Delicious  was  the  wine  for  the  inhabitants  of  the 
'  Conqueror's  city.'  Their  cider  was  like  .  .  .  .  ,  their 
sherbets  were  like  almonds  mixed  with  honey.  There  was 
beer  from  Kati  (Galilee)  in  the  harbor,  wine  in  the  gar- 
dens, fine  oil  at  the  lake  Sagabi,  garlands  in  the  apple- 
orchards.  The  sweet  song  of  women  resounded  to  the 
tunes  of  Memphis.  So  they  sat  there  with  joyful  heart,  or 
walked  about  without  ceasing.  King  Ramessu-Miamun, 
he  was  the  god  they  celebrated." 

12  ^  * 


178  THE  TRUE  STORY  OF 

In  spite  of  the  unexplained  names  of  the  fishes 
and  plants,  the  scribe  could  hardly  have  given  a 
clearer  or  livelier  account  of  the  impression  made 
on  his  susceptible  mind  by  the  new  city  of  Ramses 
in  its  festal  garments  on  the  day  of  the  entry  of 
pharaoh.  We  may  suppose  that  many  a  Hebrew, 
perhaps  Moses  himself,  jostled  the  Egyptian  scribe 
in  his  wandering  through  the  gaily  dressed  streets 
of  the  temple-city. 

And  this  city  of  Ramses  is  the  very  same  which 
is  named  in  Hol}^  Scripture  as  one  of  the  two  places 
in  which  pharaoh  had  built  for  him  '  arei  miskenoth,* 
'  treasure  cities,'  as  the  translators  understand  it.* 
It  would  be  better,  having  regard  to  the  actual 
Egyptian  word  '  mesket,'  '  meskenet,'  *  temple,  holy 
place'  (as,  for  example,  king  Darius  designates  his 
temple  erected  in  the  great  Oasis  to  the  Theban 
Amon),  to  translate  it  *  temple-cities.'  The  new 
pharaoh,  *  who  knew  not  Joseph,'  f  who  adorned  the 
city  of  Ramses,  the  capital  of  the  Tanitic  nome,  and 
the  city  of  Pithom,  the  capital  of  what  was  after- 
wards the  Sethroitic  nome,  with  temple-cities,  is  no 
other,  can  he  no  other,  than  Ramessu  II.,  of  whose 

*  Exod.  i.   13:    "  And  they  built  for  Pharaoh  treasure  cities, 
Pithom  and  Raamses." 

t  Who  did  not  recognize  what  Joseph  had  long  before  done  for 

Egypt. 


THE  EXODUS  OF  ISRAEL.  179 

buildings  at  Zoan  the  monuments  and  fhe  papyrus- 
rolls  speak  in  complete  agreement.  And  although, 
as  it  happens,  Pitum  is  not  named  as  a  city  in  which 
Ramses  erected  new  temples  to  the  local  divinities, 
the  fact  is  all  the  more  certain,  that  Zoan  con- 
tained a  new  city  of  Ramses,  the  great  temple- 
district  of  the  newly  founded  sanctuaries  of  the 
above-named  gods.  Ramessu  is  the  pharaoh  of  the 
oppression,  and  the  father  of  that  unnamed  princess 
who  found  the  child  Moses  exposed  in  the  bul- 
rushes on  the  bank  of  the  river. 

While  the  fact,  that  the  pharaoh  we  have  named 
was  the  founder  of  the  city  of  Ramses,  is  so  strongly 
demonstrated  by  the  evidence  of  the  Egyptian  rec- 
ords both  on  stone  and  papyrus,  that  only  want 
of  intelligence  and  mental  blindness  can  deny  it, 
the  inscriptions  do  not  mention  one  syllable  about 
the  Israelites.  We  must  suppose  that  the  captives 
were  included  in  the  general  name  of  foreigners, 
of  whom  the  documents  make  such  frequent  men- 
tion. The  hope,  however,  is  not  completely  ex- 
cluded, that  some  hidden  papyrus  may  still  give 
us  information  about  them,  as  unexpected  as  it 
would  be  welcome. 

We  must  again  remark,  and  insist  with  strong 
emphasis  on  the  fact,  that  from  this  time,  and  in 
the  future  history  of  the  empire,  the  town  of  Zoan- 


180  THE  TRUE  STORY  OF 

Tanis  is  of  great  importance.  On  the  wide  plains 
before  Zoan,  the  hosts  of  the  warriors  were  mus- 
tered to  be  exercised  in  the  manoeuvres  of  battle ; 
here  the  chariots  of  war  rolled  by  with  their  stamp- 
ing pairs  of  horses ;  the  sea-going  ships  and  their 
crews  came  to  land  at  the  harbors  on  the  broad 
river.  From  this  place  Thutmes  III.  had  started 
in  his  war  against  western  Asia ;  it  was  to  Tanis 
that  Ramses  II.  had  directed  his  return  from 
Thebes ;  here  he  had  received  the  embassy  of 
peace  from  the  king  of  Khita ;  and  from  hence,  as 
we  shall  presently  have  to  relate,  Moses  led  the 
Hebrews  out  of  the  land  of  bondage  to  the  land  of 
promise,  to  give  his  people  the  milk  and  honey 
of  the  Holy  Land,  in  exchange  for  the  flesh-pots 
of  Egypt. 

The  influx  of  Semite-Asiatic  hostages  and  prison- 
ers exercised  a  continually  increasing  influence  on 
religion,  manners,  and  language.  The  Egyptian  lan- 
guage was  enriched  (we  might  almost  say,  for  our 
profit)  with  foreign  expressions,  often  indeed  from 
mere  whim,  but  more  often  for  good  reasons,  in 
order  properly  to  designate  unknown  objects  by 
their  native  names.  The  letters  and  documents 
of  the  time  of  the  Ramessids  are  full  of  Semitic 
words  thus  introduced,  and  in  this  respect  they  are 
scarcely  less   affected   than   the  German   language 


THE  EXODUS  OF  ISRAEL.  181 

now,  the  strength  and  beauty  of  which  are  so  much 
degraded  by  the  borrowing  of  outlandish  words. 

Ramses  II.  enjoyed  a  long  reign.  The  monuments 
expressly  testify  to  a  rule  of  sixty-seven  years,  of 
which  probably  more  than  half  must  be  assigned  to 
his  joint  reign  with  his  father.  Great  in  war,  and 
active  in  the  works  of  peace,  Ramses  seems  also  to 
have  enjoyed  the  richest  blessings  of  heav-en  in  his 
family  life.  The  outer  wall  of  the  front  of  the  tem- 
ple of  Abydus  gives  us  the  pictures  and  the  names 
(only  partially  preserved)  of  119  children  (59  sons 
and  60  daughters). 

The  elder  sons  died  during  the  long  reign  of  their 
father.  The  fourteenth  in  the  long  list  of  children, 
by  name  Mineptah,  '  the  friend  of  Ptah,'  was  chosen 
by  destiny  to  mount  at  last  the  throne  of  the  pha- 
raohs.  He  had  already  taken  part  in  the  affairs  of 
government  during  the  lifetime  of  his  aged  father,  " 
and  in  this  capacity  he  appears  on  the  monuments 
of  Ramses  II.,  by  the  side  of  his  royal  parent. 

Of  the  daughters  of  the  king,  the  monuments 
name,  during  the  lifetime  of  the  pharaoh,  as  real 
queens  and  wives  of  Egyptian  kings  (perhaps  sub- 
kings  or  brothers),  his  favorite  daughter,  called  by 
tlie  Semitic  name  of  Bint-antha,  '  the  daughter  of 
Anaitis,'  and  Meri-amon,  and  Neb-taui.  A  much 
younger  sister  of  the  name  of  Meri  (Dear)  deserves 


182  THE   TRUE  STORY  OF 

to  be  mentioned,  since  her  name  reminds  us  of  the 
Princess  Merris  (also  called  Thermuthis),  according 
to  the  Jewish  tradition,*  who  found  the  child  Moses 
on  the  bank  of  the  stream,  when  she  went  to  bathe. 
Is  it  by  accident,  or  by  divine  providence,  that  in 
the  reign  of  Ramses  III.,  about  one  hundred  years 
after  the  death  of  his  ancestor,  the  great  Sesostris, 
a  place  is  mentioned  in  Middle  Egypt,  which  bears 
the  name  of  the  great  Jewish  legislator  ?  It  is 
called  T-en-Mosh^,  '  the  island  of  Moses,'  or  '  the 
river-bank  of  Moses.'  It  lay  on  the  eastern  side  of 
the  river,  near  the  city  of  the  heretic  king  Khu-n- 
aten.f  The  place  still  existed  in  the  time  of  the 
Romans ;  those  who  describe  Egypt  at  that  time 
designate  it  with  a  mistaken  apprehension  of  its 
true  meaning,  as  Musai,  or  MusOn,  as  if  it  had 
some  connection  with  the  Greek  Muses. 

*  Joseph.  Antiq.  ii.  9,    §   35;    Artapanus,   ap,   Euseb.  Prcep 
Evang.  ix.  27. 
t  See  p.  161. 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  183 


CHAPTER   XL 

THE    PHARAOH  OF   THE    EXODUS   AND   A   SUMMARY 
OF   SUCCEEDING   HISTORY. 

MiNEPTAH  II.  makes  but  an  insignificant  figure 
among  the  proud  kings  of  Egypt,  being  neither 
renowned  for  arts  nor  arms,  and  being  remembered 
as  a  weak,  cowardly,  and  cruel  ruler.  He  does  not 
rank  with  those  pharaohs  who  have  transmitted 
their  remembrance  to  posterity  by  grand  buildings 
and  the  construction  of  new  temples,  or  by  the 
enlargement  of  such  as  already  existed. 

With  the  exception  of  small  portions,  hardly 
worthy  of  being  named,  the  new  pharaoh  contented 
himself  with  the  cheap  glory  of  utilizing,  or  rather 
misusing,  the  monuments  of  his  predecessors,  as 
far  back  as  the  twelfth  dynasty,  and  not  excepting 
even  the  works  of  the  Hyksos,  as  bearers  of  his 
royal  shields  ;  for  in  the  cartouches  of  former  kings, 
whence  he  had  chiselled  out  their  names,  he  unscru- 
pulously inserted  his  own,  without  any  respect  for 
the  judgment  of  posterity.  The  nomad  tribes  of  the 
Edomite  Shasu  —  who  under  Seti  I.  still  regarded 
the  eastern  region  of  the  Delta,  up  to  the  neighbor- 


184  THE   TRUE  STORY  OF 

hood  of  Zoan,  the  city  of  Ramses,  as  their  own  pos- 
session, until  they  were  driven  out  by  that  pharaoh 
over  the  eastern  frontier  —  bestirred  themselves 
anew  under  Mineptah,  but  now  in  a  manner  alike 
peaceful  and  loyal.  As  faithful  subjects  of  pha- 
raoh, they  asked  for  a  passage  through  the  border 
fortress  of  Khetam,  in  the  land  of  Thuku  (Sukoth), 
in  order  to  find  sustenance  for  themselves  and  their 
herds  in  the  rich  pasture  lands  of  the  lake  district 
about  the  city  of  Pitom. 

On  this  subject  an  Egyptian  official  makes  the 
following  report : 

"Another  matter  for  the  satisfaction  of  my  master's 
heart.  We  have  carried  into  effect  the  passage  of  the 
tribes  of  the  Shasu  from  the  land  of  Aduma  (Edom), 
through  the  fortress  (Khetam)  of  Mineptah-Hotephiraa, 
■which  is  situated  in  Thuku  (Sukoth),  to  the  lakes  of 
the  city  Pit-um,  of  Mineptah-Hotephima,  which  are  situ- 
ated in  the  land  of  Thuku,  in  order  to  feed  themselves 
and  to  feed  their  herds  on  the  possessions  of  pharaoh, 
who  is  there  a  beneficent  sun  for  all  peoples.  In  the 
3'ear  8  .  .  .  .  Set,  I  caused  them  to  be  conducted,  accord- 
ing the  list  of  the  ....  for  the  ....  of  the  other  names 
of  the  da3's,  on  which  the  fortress  (Khetam)  of  Minep- 
tah-Hotephima is  opened  for  their  passage," 

If  Ramses-Sesostris,  the  builder  of  the  temple- 
city  of  the  same  name  in  the  territory  of  Zoan- 
Tanis,  must  be  regarded  beyond  all  doubt  as  the 
pharaoh  under  whom  the  Jewish  legislator  Moses 


TEE  EXODUS  OF  ISRAEL.  185 

first  saw  the  light,  so  the  chronological  relations  — 
having  regard  to  the  great  age  of  the  two  contem- 
poraries, Ramses  II.  and  Moses  —  demand  that 
Mineptah  should  in  all  probability  be  acknowledged 
as  the  pharaoh  of  the  Exodus.  He  also  had  his 
royal  seat  in  the  city  of  Ramses,  and  seems  to  have 
strengthened  its  fortifications.  The  Bible  speaks 
of  him  only  under  the  general  name  of  Pharaoh, 
that  is,  under  a  true  Egyptian  title,  which  was 
becoming  more  and  more  frequent  at  the  time  now 
under  our  notice.  Pir-'ao  —  '  great  house,  high 
gate' — is,  according  to  the  monuments,  the  desig- 
nation of  the  king  of  the  land  of  Egypt  for  the 
time  being.  This  does  not  of  itself  furnish  a  deci- 
sive argument.  Only  the  incidental  statement  of 
the  Psalmist,  that  Moses  wrought  his  wonders  in  the 
.field  of  Zoan,*  carries  us  back  again  to  those  sover- 
eigns, Ramses  II.  and  Mineptah,  who  were  fond  of 
holding  their  court  in  Zoan-Ramses. 

Some  have  very  recently  wished  to  recognize  the 
Egyptian  appellation  of  the  Hebrews  in  the  name  of 
the  so-called  'Aper,  'Apura,  or  'Aperiu,  the  Ery- 
thraean people  in  the  east  of  the  nome  of  Heliopolis, 
in  what  is  known  as  the  '  red  country '  on  the  '  red 
mountain '  ;  and  hence  they  have  drawn  conclusions 
which  —  speaking  modestly,  according  to  our  knowl- 
edge of  the  monuments  —  rest  on  a  weak  founda- 
*  Psalm  Ixxviii.  43. 


186  THE  TRUE  STORY  OF 

tion.  According  to  the  inscriptions,  the  name  of 
this  people  appears  in  connection  with  the  breeding 
of  horses  and  the  art  of  horsemanship.  In  an  his- 
torical narrative  of  the  time  of  Thutmes  III.  (unfor- 
tunately much  obliterated),  the  'Apura  are  named 
as  horsemen,  or  knights  (senen),  who  mount  their 
horses  at  the  king's  command.  In  another  docu- 
ment, of  the  time  of  Ramses  III.,  long  after  the 
exodus  of  the  Jews  from  Egypt,  two  thousand  and 
eighty-three  'Aperiu  are  introduced,  as  settlers  in 
Heliopolis,  with  the  words,  '  Knights,  sons  of  the 
kings  and  noble  lords  (Marina)  of  the  'Aper,  settled 
people,  who  dwell  in  this  place.'  Under  Ramses  IV. 
we  again  meet  with  'Aper,  eight  hundred  in  num- 
ber, as  inhabitants  of  foreign  origin  in  the  district  of 
'Ani  or  'Aini,  on  the  western  shore  of  the  Red  Sea, 
in  the  neighborhood  of  the  modern  Suez. 

These  and  similar  data  completely  exclude  all 
thought  of  the  Hebrews,  unless  one  is  disposed 
to  have  recourse  to  suppositions  and  conjectures 
against  the  most  explicit  statements  of  the  biblical 
records.  On  the  other  hand,  the  hope  can  scarcely 
be  cherished  that  we  shall  ever  find  on  the  public 
monuments  —  rather  let  us  say  in  some  hidden  roll 
of  papyrus  —  the  events,  repeated  in  an  Egyptian 
version,  which  relate  to  the  exodus  of  the  Jews 
and  the  destruction  of  pharaoh   in   the  Red  Sea. 


THE  EXODUS  OF  ISRAEL.  187 

For  the  record  of  these  events  was  inseparably 
connected  with  the  humiliating  confession  of  a 
divine  visitation,  to  which  a  patriotic  writer  at  the 
court  of  pharaoh  would  hardly  have  brought  his 
mind. 

Presupposing,  then,  that  Mineptah  is  to  be  re- 
garded as  the  pharaoh  of  the  Exodus,  this  ruler 
must  have  had  to  endure  serious  disturbances  of  all 
kinds  during  the  time  of  his  reign :  —  in  the  west  the 
Libyans,  in  the  east  the  Hebrews,  and  —  let  us  at 
once  add  —  in  the  south  a  spirit  of  rebellion,  which 
declared  itself  by  the  insurrection  of  a  rival  king 
of  the  family  of  the  great  Ramses-Sesostris.  The 
events,  which  form  the  lamentable  close  of  his  rule 
over  Egypt  are  passed  over  by  the  monuments  with 
perfect  silence.  The  dumb  tumulus  covers  the  mis- 
fortune which  was  suffered. 

In  casting  a  glance  over  the  most  eminent  contem- 
poraries of  this  king,  we  are  reminded  especially  of 
his  viceroy  in  Egypt,  the  *  king's  son  of  Kush,' 
named  Mas,  —  the  same  who  had  been  invested  with 
this  high  office  in  the  southern  province  under  Ram- 
ses II.  His  memory  has  been  perpetuated  in  a  rock 
inscription  at  Assuan.  We  may  further  make  men- 
tion —  instructed  by  a  record  in  the  quarries  of  Sil- 
silis  —  of  the  noble  Pinehas,  an  Egyptian  namesake 
of  the  Hebrew  Phinehas,  the  son  of  Eleazar,  son  of 


188  TEE  TRUE  STORY  OF 

Aaron.  In  conclusion,  let  us  not  forget  the  very 
influential  high-priest  of  Amon,  Roi,  or  Loi,  Lui 
(i.  e.  Levi),  who  under  Mineptah  held  the  command 
of  the  legion  of  Amon,  administered  the  treasury 
of  Amon,  and,  according  to  the  custom  of  the  time, 
was  chief  architect  to  pharaoh.  To  be  sure,  this 
must  have  been  an  easy  office  for  him,  since  there 
was  not  much  building,  except  perhaps  the  royal 
sepulchre,  which  the  drowned  pharaoh  probably 
never  entered. 

Having  arrived  at  the  time  when  the  Hebrews 
began  the  conquest  of  Canaan,  and  were  henceforth 
a  separate  nation,  it  will  not  be  expected  that  from 
this  point  anything  more  than  a  brief  summary  of 
Egyptian  affairs  will  be  given.  The  twentieth  dynasty 
begins  with  the  reign  of  Ramses  HI.,  and  ends  with 
that  of  Ramses  XIII.  Foreign  war  is  the  one  un- 
varying subject  that  presents  itself  as  we  look  over 
the  accounts  that  have  been  preserved.  Ramses 
III.  appears  to  have  conquered  Cyprus,  CiHcia,  and 
parts  of  Asia  Minor,  and  he  erected  in  various  parts 
of  Egypt  and  in  foreign  countries  a  large  number 
of  memorial  buildings  '  in  his  name,'  called  Ra- 
messea.  He  is  known  as  Rhampsinitus  in  the  his- 
tory of  Herodotus.  The  remaining  princes  of  the 
dynasty  require  no  special  mention  here.  Their 
reigns  were  in  no  way  remarkable  ;  and  toward  the 


THE  EXODUS  OF  ISRAEL.  189 

last  the  Theban  priests  had  become  so  influential 
as  to  vie  with  the  pharaoh  in  power.  After  the 
death  of  Ramses  XIII.  a  priest  named  Hirhor  as- 
cended the  throne,  being  the  first  of  the  twenty- 
first  dynasty.  The  descendants  of  the  Ramessu 
were  banished. 

Then  came  an  Assyrian  invasion  under  the  mighty 
king  Nimrod  (Naromath),  ostensibly  to  reinstate 
the  Ramessids,  but  really  to  effect  a  conquest  of 
Egypt.  Nimrod  died  while  in  Egypt,  and  was 
buried  at  Abydus.  His  son  Shashank  (Shishak 
in  the  Bible),  became  king,  and  fixed  his  seat  at 
Buba-tus.  Egypt  was  at  this  time  virtually  an 
Assyrian  province.  This  portion  of  Egyptian  his- 
tory was  first  made  known  to  the  world  through 
the  discoveries  of  Dr.  Brugsch.  The  evidence 
comes  from  inscriptions  on  a  large  granite  block 
found  at  Abydus.  The  twenty-second  dynasty  be- 
gan with  Shashank  I.  This  monarch  —  the  Shishak 
of  the  Bible,  the  Sesonchis  of  Manetho  —  has  be- 
come a  conspicuous  person  in  the  history  of  Egypt, 
in  connection  with  the  records  of  the  Jewish  mon- 
archy, through  his  expedition  against  the  kingdom 
of  Judah.  It  is  well  known  how  Jeroboam,  the 
servant  of  king  Solomon,  rebelled  against  the  king 
his  master.  After  the  prophet  Ahijah  had  publicly 
designated  him  beforehand,  as  the  man  best  quali- 


190  THE  TRUE  STORY  OF 

fied  to  be  the  future  sovereign,  Jeroboam  was  obliged 
to  save  himself  from  the  anger  and  the  snares  of 
the  king,  and  for  this  reason  he  fled  to  Egypt,  to 
the  court  of  Shashanq  I.*  Recalled  after  the  death 
of  Solomon,  he  returned  to  his  home,  to  be  elected 
king  of  Israel  according  to  the  word  of  the  prophet, 
while  the  crown  of  Judah  fell  to  Solomon's  son, 
Rehoboam.f  In  the  fifth  year  of  this  latter  king's 
reign,  and  probably  at  the  instigation  of  his  former 
guest  (Jeroboam),  Shashanq  made  his  expedition 
against  the  kingdom  of  Judah,  which  ended  in  the 
capture  and  pillaging  of  Jerusalem. J 

This  attack  of  the  Egyptian  king  on  the  king- 
dom of  Judah  and  the  levitical  cities,  which  the 
Scripture  relates  fully  and  in  all  its  details,  has 
been  also  handed  down  to  later  ages  in  outline  on 
a  wall  of  the  temple  of  Amon  in  the  Theban  Api. 
On  the  south  external  wall,  behind  the  picture  of 
the  victories  of  king  Ramessu  II.,  to  the  east  of  the 
room  called  the  Hall  of  the  Bubastids,  the  spec- 
tator beholds  the  colossal  image  of  the  Egyptian 
sovereign  dealing  the  heavy  blows  of  his  victorious 
club  on  the  captive  Jews.  The  names  of  the  towns 
and  districts,  which  Shashanq  I.  conquered  in  his 


*  1  Kings  xi   26-40.  f  1  Kings  xii. ;  2  Chron.  ill. 

X  1  Kings  xiv.  25-28 ;  2  Chron.  xii. 


THE  EXODUS  OF  ISRAEL.  191 

expedition  against  Judah,  are  paraded  in  long  rows, 
in  their  Egyptian  forms  of  writing,  and  frequently 
with  considerable  repetitions,  each  name  being  en- 
closed in  an  embattled  shield. 

This  succession  of  Assyrian  kings  continued, 
though  with  many  vicissitudes,  for  many  reigns. 
The  twenty-third  dynasty  consisted  of  three  kings, 
and  the  period  was  one  of  incessant  struggle  with 
Assyrians  on  the  north  and  Ethiopians  on  the  south. 
The  twenty-fourth  dynasty  is  unknown.  The  long 
commotions  resulted  in  the  establishment  of  the  Ethi- 
opian kings  upon  the  Egyptian  throne.  They  were 
Ethiopian  only  in  name,  however,  being  descend- 
ants of  priests  and  princes  of  the  Egyptian  race, 
who  had  taken  refuge  during  the  Assyrian  domi- 
nation in  the  regions  watered  by  the  Upper  Nile. 
The  Assyrians  still  ruled  by  means  of  petty  kings 
whom  the}^  supported  in  Lower  Egypt,  while  the 
Ethiopians  had  sway  iji  Thebes  and  the  country 
above.  Full  accounts  of  this  period  of  intestine 
commotion  have  been  found  in  memorial  stones  at 
Mount  Barkal.  These  relate  principally  to  the  ex- 
ploits of  the  kings  Piankhi  and  Miamun  Nut. 
It  is  needless  for  any  but  archaeologists  to  attempt 
to  follow  the  few  and  uncertain  lights  in  this  dark 
era.  It  is  perhaps  enough  to  add  that  after  a  long 
period  of  utter  confusion,  in  which  Egyptians,  As- 


192  THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL. 

Syrians,  and  Ethiopians  were  constantly  in  arms, 
peace  came  to  the  distracted  country  under  the 
benign  rule  of  Psametik  I.,  who  was  doubly  fortu- 
nate in  preserving  his  own  northern  realm  and  in 
wedding  the  heiress  of  the  Ethiopian  line,  the  great- 
grand-daughter  of  the  king  Piankhi  and  of  the 
beautiful  queen  Ameniritis. 

The  splendid  alabaster  statue  of  the  queen-mother 
Ameniritis,  which  was  found  at  Karnak,  and  now 
adorns  the  rooms  of  the  Egyptian  Museum  at 
Boulaq,  is  in  this  point  of  view  ar  most  important 
and  suggestive  memorial  of  that  age.  Sweet  peace 
seems  to  hover  about  her  features  ;  even  the  flower 
in  her  hand  suggests  her  high  mission  as  reconciler 
of  the  long  feud. 

The  name  Psametik  is  also  of  Ethiopian  origin, 
and  signifies  'Son  of  the  sun.'  His  seat  was  at 
Sair  in  the  north.  The  dynasty  so  happily  begun 
lasted  one  hundred  and  thirty-eight  years,  when 
Egypt  was  once  more  conquered,  B.  c.  527,  by  a 
Persian  army  under  Cambyses.  The  rule  of  the 
Persians,  under  six  or  more  kings,  lasted  one  hun- 
dred and  three  years. 

From  this  epoch  the  monuments  are  conspicu- 
ously silent.  There  are  only  isolated  inscriptions, 
containing  no  records  of  the  victories  of  each  age, 
but  continual  songs  of  woe,  which  we   must  read 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  193 

between  the  lines.  They  form  the  dying  swan- 
song  of  the  mighty  empire  on  the  Nile. 

It  is  no  longer  the  everlasting  stone  or  monument 
that  makes  known  to  us  the  unenviable  fortune  of 
the  land ;  but  it  is  the  inquisitive  Greek,  who  trav- 
els through  the  Nile  valley  under  the  protection  of 
the  Persians  or  the  kings  of  his  own  race,  and  gath- 
ers his  information  from  ignorant  interpreters,  that 
becomes  henceforth  the  source  of  our  knowledge. 

The  monuments  of  the  twenty-sixth  dynasty, 
belonging  to  the  seventh  and  sixth  centuries  B.  c, 
are  distinguished  by  a  peculiar  beauty  —  one  might 
almost  use  the  word  elegance  —  in  which  we  can- 
not fail  to  recognize  foreign,  that  is,  Greek,  influ- 
ence. An  extreme  neatness  of  manipulation  in  the 
drawings  and  lines,  in  imitation  of  the  best  epochs 
of  art  in  earlier  times,  serves  for  the  instant  recog- 
nition of  the  work  of  this  age,  the  fineness  of  which 
often  reminds  us  of  the  performances  of  a  seal- 
engraver.  There  rests  upon  the  work,  which  is 
executed  in  the  hardest  stone  with  a  finish  equal 
to  metal-casting,  a  gentle  and  almost  feminine  ten- 
derness, which  has  impressed  upon  the  imitations  of 
living  creatures  the  stamp  of  an  incredible  delicacy 
both  of  conception  and  execution. 

It  should  be  mentioned  that  Darius  I.  conceived 
the  bold  plan  of  connecting  the  Red  Sea  with  the 
13 


194  THE  TRUE  STORY  OF 

Nile  by  a  canal.  The  remains  of  a  statue  of  the 
king,  as  well  as  several  memorial  stones  covered 
with  triplicate  cuneiform  inscriptions  and  with 
Egyptian  hieroglyphics,  which  have  been  found 
near  the  line  of  the  canal  (north  of  Suez),  place 
the  fact  beyond  all  doubt.  One  of  the  tablets  is 
thus  translated: 

"  Says  Darius  the  king :  '  I  am  a  Persian  ;  with  (the 
power  of)  Persia  I  conquered  Egypt  (Mudraya).  I 
ordered  this  canal  to  be  dug,  from  the  river  called  Pirava 
(the  Nile) ,  which  flows  in  Eg^-pt,  to  the  sea  which  comes 
out  of  Persia.*  This  canal  was  afterwards  dug  there,  as 
I  had  commanded,  and  I  said,  "  Go,  and  destroy  half  of 
the  canal  from  Biraf  to  the  coast."  For  so  was  my 
will.* " 

According  to  Strabo's  statement,  cited  by  Oppert,$ 
Darius  left  off  constructing  the  canal  because  some 

*  This  seems  to  apply  to  the  Erythrasan  Sea,  in  the  wide  sense 
in  which  the  name  is  used  by  Herodotus,  including  what  is  now 
called  the  Arabian  Sea,  with  the  Persian  Gulf  and  Red  Sea,  the 
latter  having  also  the  special  name  of  the  Arabian  Gulf.  —  Ed. 

t  May  we  perhaps  understand  by  Bira  the  Egyptian  Pi-ra,  '  the 
[city  of]  the  Sun,'  namely,  Heliopolis? 

X  Strabo,  xvii.,  p.  804.  Oppert's  own  words  will  be  found  inter- 
esting: "We  can  read  through  the  laconism  of  this  inscription 
which,  allowing  for  the  position  in  which  the  king  places  himself, 
nevertheless  establishes  a  failure.  Darius  wished  to  unite  the 
Nile  and  the  sea  by  a  fresh-water  canal  ;  to  resume  and  finish  the 
work  which  had  been  attributed  first  to  Sesostris,  and  which  Neco, 
the  son  of  Psamnietichus,  had  in  vain  tried  to  accomplish.  But 
neither  was  Darius  able  to  bring  the  work  to  a  successful  issue." 


THE  EXODUS  OF  ISRAEL.  195 

had  assured  him  that  Egypt  lay  below  the  level  of 
the  Red  Sea,  and  so  the  danger  was  threatened  of 
seeing  the  whole  land  laid  under  water. 

Two  dynasties  followed,  the  twenty-ninth  and 
thirtieth,  at  Mendes  and  Sebennytus,  but  the  rec- 
ords are  for  the  most  part  silent  concerning  them. 
The  thirty-first  dynasty  was  Persian,  and  consisted 
of  three  monarchs,  whose  reigns  amounted  only  to 
eight  years.  In  the  year  332  B.  c,  Egypt  was  con- 
quered by  Alexander  the  Great,  and  with  this  event 
the  history  as  written  by  Dr.  Brugsch  concludes. 
The  subsequent  history  is  to  be  found  in  the  clas- 
sical writers,  and  in  various  modern  reproductions. 


196  THE  TRUE  STORY  OF 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE  EXODUS  AND  THE  EGYPTIAN  MONUMENTS. 

A  Discourse  delivered  on  the  Occasion  of  tlie  International  Con- 
gress  of  Orientalists  in  London^  September  17,  1874.  By 
Henry  Brugsch-Bey,  Delegate  of  his  Highness  Ismael  /., 
Khedive  of  Egypt.     Translated  from  the  French  Original. 


AD  VERTISEMENT 

TO     THE     ORIGINAL     EDITION. 

The  publication  of  this  Memoir,  which  should 
have  appeared  a  year  ago,  has  been  delayed  by  the 
absence  of  the  author,  while  in  official  charge  of  an 
expedition  into  the  interior  of  the  Libyan  Desert,  of 
Egypt,  and  of  Nubia.  On  returning  from  this  jour- 
ney, he  was  able  to  take  advantage  of  his  stay  in 
the  eastern  part  of  Lower  Egypt,  to  examine  the 
sites,  and  to  verify  the  topographical  and  geograph- 
ical views,  which  form  the  subject  of  this  Memoir. 

The  author  is  happy  to  be  able  to  state,  that  his 
new  researches  have  contributed  to  prove,  even  to 
the  smallest  details,  the  conclusions  which  the 
papyri  and  the  monuments  compelled  him  to  form 


THE  EXODUS  OF  ISRAEL.  197 

with  regard  to  the  topographical  direction  of  the 
Exodus,  and  to  the  stations  where  the  Hebrews 
halted,  as  related  in  Holy  Scripture. 

In  a  special  Memoir,  which  will  form  a  complete 
chapter  of  my  periodical  publication,  '  The  Bible 
and  the  Monuments '  (^Bibel  und  BenJcmaeler') ,  an- 
nounced several  months  since,  the  reader  will  find 
a  collection  of  all  the  materials  drawn  from  the 
monuments,  which  have  enabled  me  to  re-establish 
the  route  of  the  Jews  after  their  departure  from 
Egypt,  and  which  prove  incontestably  that  the  la- 
bors of  Messrs.  Unruh  and  Schleiden  *  on  the  same 
subject  were  based  on  views  as  near  the  truth  as 
was  then  possible. 

Notwithstanding  the  very  hostile  and  sometimes 
not  very  Christian  attacks  which  these  new  views 
have  had  to  sustain  on  the  part  of  several  orthodox 
scholars,  the  author  of  this  discourse  ventures  to 
affirm  that  the  number  of  monumental  indications 
is  every  day  accumulating,  and  continually  furnish- 
ing new  proofs  in  favor  of  our  discovery.  Any  one 
must  certainly  be  blind  who  refuses  to  see  the  flood 
of  light  which  the  papyri  and  other  Egyptian  mon- 
uments are  throwing  upon  the  venerable  records  of 
Holy  Scripture ;  and,  above  all,  there  must  needs  be 

*  See  page  203  of  the  following  Discourse. 


198  THE  TRUE  STORY  OF 

a  wilful  mistaking  of  the  first  laws  of  criticism  by 
those  who  wish  to  discover  contradictions,  which 
really  exist  only  in  the  imagination  of  opponents. 

Note. — In  our  translation,  we  follow  Dr.  Brugseh's 
orthography  of  the  proper  names,  which,  in  this  Memoir, 
he  has  adapted  to  the  French  language  in  which  it  was 
written,  as,  for  the  chief  example,  in  the  use  of  ou  for 
the  pure  u  used  in  his  German  text. 

We  have  not  thought  it  necessary  to  encumber  the 
pages  with  Notes  referring  to  all  the  points  already 
touched  on  in  the  Historj^,  and  here  collected  into  one 
focus  of  light  thrown  on  the  subject  in  hand.  —  Ed. 


PREFACE. 

The 'following  pages  contain  the  printed  report 
of  the  Discourse  which  the  delegate  of  his  Highness 
Ismael  I.,  Khedive  of  Egypt,  had  the  honor  to  .de- 
liver on  the  evening  of  September  17,  1874,  at  the 
International  Congress  of  Orientalists  in  London. 

Although  the  necessarily  restricted  limits  of  time, 
and  the  consideration  due  to  an  indulgent  audience, 
did  not  permit  him  to  develop  all  the  details  of  a 
question,  the  solution  of  which  has  occupied  him 
through  a  long  course  of  years,  the  lively  maiks  of 
satisfaction  with  which  his  hearers  were  pleased  to 
honor  him,  and  which  were  echoed  by  journals  held 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  199 

in  the  highest  esteem,  impose  on  him  the  duty  of 
presenting  to  the  public  the  contents  of  this  dis- 
course under  the  form  of  a  Memoir  drawn  up  on 
the  programme  of  his  subject. 

The  more  that  his  researches  and  investigations 
on  the  Exodus,  founded  on  the  study  of  the  monu- 
ments, appear  to  present  to  the  author  results  which 
are  entirely  opposed  to  the  views  hitherto  adopted 
with  regard  to  this  part  of  the  history  of  the  He- 
brews, so  much  the  more  does  he  feel  almost  com- 
pelled to  publish  the  materials  which  have  supplied 
him  with  a  foundation,  and  which  have  imperatively 
led  him  to  present  the  departure  of  the  Jews  from 
Egypt  in  its  true  light. 

Those  who  are  afraid  of  meeting  in  these  new 
hypotheses  attacks  upon  the  statements  of  Holy 
Scripture,  —  from  which  may  God  preserve  me,  —  or 
the  suggestion  of  doubts  relative  to  the  sacred  his- 
tory, may  feel  completely  reassured.  Far  from  les- 
sening the  authority  and  the  weight  of  the  Books 
on  which  our  religion  is  founded,  .the  results  at 
which  the  author  of  this  Memoir  has  arrived  — 
thanks  to  the  authentic  indications  of  the  monu- 
ments —  will  serve,  on  the  contrary,  as  testimonies 
to  establish  the  supreme  veracity  of  the  Sacred 
Scriptures,  and  to  prove  the  antiquity  of  their  ori- 
gin and  of  their  sources. 


200  THE   TRUE  STORY  OF 

The  author  cannot  conclude  without  fulfilling  a 
sacred  duty  by  thanking  his.  august  Master,  in  the 
name  of  science,  for  the  numerous  efforts  which  he 
has  generously  devoted  to  the  development  of  his- 
torical studies  and  to  the  service  of  the  monuments 
of  his  country.  Having  found  in  the  person  of  our 
excellent  and  learned  friend  and  colleague,  Mariette 
Bey,  one  as  devoted  as  he  was  qualified  by  skill  and 
experience  to  carry  out  his  enlightened  ideas,  his 
Highness  the  Khedive  of  Egypt  has  perfectly  under- 
stood and  accomplished  the  high  mission  which 
divine  Providence  has  reserved  for  him,  that  of 
being  the  regenerator  of  Egypt,  ancient  as  well  as 
modern.  H.  B. 


THE   MEMOIR. 

His  Highness  the  Kh'edive  of  Egypt,  Ismael 
Pacha,  has  granted  me  the  honor  of  representing 
his  country  at  the  International  Congress  of  Orien- 
talists in  London.  On  this  occasion,  the  enlight- 
ened prince,  who  has  rendered  so  many  services  to 
the  science  I  profess,  has  ordered  me  to  express,  in 
his  name,  to  the  illustrioas  members  of  the  Qori- 
gress,  his  most  lively  sympathy,  and  his  sincere 
admiration  for  the  invaluable  labors  with  which 
they  have  enriched  science,  in  bringing  back  to  life 


TEE  EXODUS  OF  ISRAEL.  201 

by  their  researches  the  remotest  past  of  those  happy 
countries  of  the  East,  which  were  the  cradle  of 
humanity  and  the  centres  of  primitive  civilization. 

If  his  Highness  has  deigned  to  fix  his  choice  on 
me  as  his  delegate  to  London,  I  owe  this  distinction 
less  to  my  humble  deserts  than  to  the  special  char- 
acter of  my  latest  researches  on  the  subject  of  the 
history  of  the  Hebrews  in  Egypt. 

Knowing  the  lively  interest  with  which  the  Eng- 
lish world  follows  those  discoveries,  above  all  others, 
which  have  a  bearing  upon  the  venerable  records  of 
Holy  Scripture,  his  Highness  has  charged  me  to  lay 
before  this  honorable  Congress  the  most  conspicuous 
results  of  my  studies,  founded  on  the  interpretation 
of  the  monuments  of  Egypt. 

In  thus  laying  before  you  a  page  of  the  history  of 
the  Hebrews  in  Egypt,  I  would  flatter  myself  with 
the  hope  that  I  may  be  able  to  reward  your  atten- 
tion, and  thereby  justify  the  high  confidence  with 
which  his  Highness  has  been  pleased  to  honor  me. 

I  am  to  speak  of  the  exodus  of  the  Hebrews. 
Bat,  before  entering  on  my  subject,  I  will  take 
leave  to  make  one  observation.  I  wish  to  state  that 
my  discussion  is  based,  on  the  one  hand,  upon  the 
texts  of  Holy  Scripture,  in  which  I  have  not  to 
change  a  single  iota  ;  on  the  other  hand,  upon  the 
Egyptian    monumental   inscriptions,    explained    ac- 


202  TEE  TRUE  STORY  OF 

cording  to  the  laws  of  a  sound  criticism,  free  from 
all  bias  of  a  fanciful  character. 

If  for  almost  twenty  centuries,  as  I  shall  have 
occasion  to  prove,  the  translators  and  the  interpre- 
ters of  Holy  Scripture  have  wrongly  understood  and 
rendered  the  geographical  notions  contained  in  that 
part  of  the  biblical  text  which  describes  the  sojourn 
of  the  Hebrews  in  Egypt,  the  error,  most  certainly, 
is  not  due  to  the  sacred  narrative,  but  to  those 
who,  unacquainted  with  the  history  and  geography 
of  the  remote  times  which  were  contemporary  with 
the  events  in  the  history  of  the  Hebrews  in  Egypt, 
have  labored  to  reconstruct,  at  any  cost,  the  exodus 
of  the  Hebrews  after  the  scale  of  their  scanty  knowl- 
edge, not  to  say,  of  their  most  complete  ignorance. 

According  to  Holy  Scripture,  Moses,  after  having 
obtained  from  the  pharaoh  of  his  age  permission  to 
lead  into  the  Desert  the  children  of  Israel,  worn  out 
with  their  hard  servitude  in  building  the  two  cities 
of  Pitom  and  Ramses,*  started  with  his  people  from 
the  city  of  Ramses,!  ^^^  arrived  successively  at  the 
stations  of  Succoth  %  and  Etham.§     At  this  last  en- 

*  Exod.  i.  11.  Observe  that  Rameses  has  already  been  men- 
tioned by  anticipation,  to  mark  tlie  locality  in  which  the  children  of 
Israel  were  settled  when  they  came  into  Egypt :  —  Gen.  xlvii.  11 : 
"  And  Joseph  placed  his  father  and  his  brethren,  and  gave  them 
a  possession  m  the  land  of  Egypt,  in  the  best  of  the  land,  in  the 
land  of  Rameses,  as  Pharaoh  had  commanded."  —  Ed. 

t  Exod.  xii.  37.  J  Ibid,  and  xiii.  20.  §  Ibid.  xiii.  20. 


THE  EXODUS  OF  ISRAEL.  203 

campment  he  turned,*  taking  the  direction  towards 
Migdol  and  the  sea  —  observe  that  there  is  not  here 
a  word  about  the  '  Sea  of  sea-weed  'f  (the  Red  Sea) 
—  opposite  to  the  '  entry  of  Khiroth,'  J  over  against 
Baal-zephon.  Then  the  Hebrews  passed  by  way  of 
the  '  Sea  of  sea- weed '  (translated  by  the  interpre- 
ters 'the  Red  Sea');§  they  remained  three  days 
■in  the  Desert  without  finding  water  ;  ||  arrived  at 
Mar^h,  where  the  water  was  bitter  ;  *^  and  at  length 
encamped  at  Elim,  a  station  with  springs  of  sweet 
water  and  a  little  grove  of  date-palms.** 

The  different  opinions  and  different  results,  in 
tracing  the  direction  of  the  march  of  the  Hebrews, 
are  just  as  many  as  the  scholars  who  have  attempted 
to  reconstruct  the  route  of  the  Hebrews  from  the 
data  of  Holy  Scripture.  But  all  these  scholars, 
except  only  two  (see  p.  197),  have  agreed  unani- 
mously that  the  passage  through  the  Red  Sea 
must  be  regarded  as  the  most  fixed  point  in  their 
system. 

I  dare  not  weary  your  patience  by  enumerating 

*  Exod.  xiv.  2. 

t  *Mer  des  Algues,'  the  translation  of  the  Hebrew  hlD-Qt  'the 
sea  of  soKph,*  which  the  LXX.  always  render  by  v  i()v6^ie  ^ukuctaa 
(as  also  in  the  N.  T.,  Acts  vii.  36,  Heb.  xi.  29),  except  in  Judges  xi. 
16,  wliere  they  preserve  the  Hebrew  name  in  the  form  2up.  —  Ed. 

X  Pi-hahiroth,  Exod.  xiv.  2.  §  Exod.  xiii.  18,  xv.  22. 

II  Thid.  XV.  22.     As  to  the  name  Shur,  see  below,  p.  215. 
t  Ibid.  XV.  23.  **  Ibid.  xv.  27. 


204  ^HE   TRUE  STORY  OF 

all  the  routes  reconstructed  by  these  scholars,  who 
had  certainly  the  best  intentions,  and  who  lacked 
only  one  thing — but  that  very  essential  —  the  neces- 
sary knowledge  of  facts  in  the  geography  of  ancient 
Egypt.  Their  general  practice,  in  order  to  redis- 
cover the  itinerary  of  the  Hebrews,  was  to  resort 
to  the  Greek  and  Roman  geographers,  who  lived 
more  than  a  thousand  years  after  Moses,  and  to 
mark  the  stations  of  the  Hebrews  by  the  Greek  or 
Latin  names  belonging  to  the  geography  of  Egypt 
under  the  rule  of  the  Ptolemies  or  the  Caesars. 

If  a  happy  chance  had  preserved  that  Manual  of 
the  Geography  of  Egypt,  which,  according  to  the 
texts  engraved  on  the  walls  of  the  temple  of  Edfou, 
was  deposited  in  the  Library  of  that  vast  sanctuary 
of  the  god  Horus,  and  which  bore  the  title  of  '  The 
Book  of  the  Towns  situated  in  Egypt  with  a  De- 
scription of  all  that  relates  to  them,'  we  should  have 
been  relieved  from  all  trouble  in  rediscovering  the 
localities  referred  to  in  Holy  Scripture.  We  should 
only  have  had  to  consult  this  book,  to  know  of 
what  we  might  be  sure  with  regard  to  these  bib- 
lical names.  Unfortunately,  this  work  has  perished 
together  with  so  raan}^  other  papyri,  and  science  has 
once  more  to  regret  the  loss  of  so  important  a  work 
of  Egyptian  antiquity.  But  even  this  loss  is  not 
irreparable !     The  monuments  and  the  papyri,  espe- 


THE  EXODUS  OF  ISRAEL.  205 

cially  those  of  the  dynasty  of  the  Ramessids,  contain 
thousands  of  texts  and  notices  of  a  purely  geograph- 
ical kind,  making  frequent  allusion  to  topographical 
positions ;  besides  which,  a  very  considerable  num- 
ber of  inscriptions,  engraved  on  the  walls  of  the 
temples,  contain  tables  more  or  less  extensive,  which 
give  us  the  most  exact  knowledge  of  the  political 
divisions  of  Egypt,  and  the  most  complete  lists  of 
the  departments  of  that  country,  accompanied  by  a 
host  of  the  most  curious  details. 

Let  me  lay  before  you  the  scattered  leaves  of 
the  lost  book  of  which  I  have  just  spoken.  Our 
purpose  is  to  collect  them  carefully,  to  put  them 
together  in  their  relation  to  each  other,  to  try  to 
fill  up  the  gaps,  and  finally  to  make  out  the  list  of 
them. 

After  having  been  engaged  on  this  work  for 
twenty  years,  I  have  succeeded,  at  the  beginning 
of  this  year,  in  reuniting  the  membra  disjecta  of  the 
great  Corpus  G-eographice  of  Egypt,  which  is  com- 
posed, according  to  the  Index  of.  my  collections,  of 
a  number  exceeding  three  thousand  six  hundred 
geographical  names.  In  the  work  of  applying  the 
laws  of  a  sound  and  calm  criticism  to  these  rich 
materials,  without  allowing  myself  to  be  enticed  by 
an  accidental  resemblance  of  form  in  the  foreign 
proper  names,  when  compared  with  the   Egyptian 


206  THE  TRUE  STORY  OF 

names,  I  have  undertaken  to  traverse  Egypt  through 
all  its  quarters,  in  order  to  obtain  a  knowledge  of 
the  ancient  ground  in  its  modern  condition,  and  to 
satisfy  myself,  from  my  own  eye-sight,  of  the  changes 
which  the  surface  of  the  soil  has  undergone  in 
different  parts  of  the  country  during  the  course  of 
the  past  centuries. 

Having  in  this  manner  accomplished  a  labor  which 
had  the  only  drawback  of  being  sometimes  beyond 
my  strength,  but  which  has  never  worn  out  my 
patience,  I  have  the  honor  of  presenting  its  results, 
in  the  form  of  a  summary,  to  this  honorable  Con- 
gress, as  a  tribute  of  respect  and  esteem  due  to  the 
illustrious  scholars  here  assembled.  While,  for  my 
own  part,  I  experience  deep  satisfaction  at  having 
in  some  sort  reached  the  goal  which  I  proposed 
to  myself  twenty  years  ago,  it  would  prove,  on  the 
other  hand,  my  highest  recompense,  to  learn  from 
your  judgment  that  I  have  recovered  a  great  part 
of  the  lost  book  of  the  Geography  of  Ancient  Egypt. 
The  application  of  the  geographical  results  settled 
and  laid  down  in  this  summary,  which  will  form  the 
special  subject  of  the  present  meeting,  will  furnish 
you  with  a  fair  test  of  the  importance  of  these 
results  and  of  their  value  to  historical  science. 

Will  you  permit  me  to  begin  my  exposition  by  a 
remark  concerning  the  general  topography  of  the 


THE  EXODUS  OF  ISRAEL.  207 

'  country  which  we  are  about  to  traverse,  in  order  to 
discover  and  follow  the  traces  of  the  Hebrews  during 
their  sojourn  in  Egypt  ?  All  the  scholars,  who  have 
given  attention  to  this  subject,  are  agreed  that  this 
country  lay  on  the  eastern  side  of  Lower  Egypt,  to 
the  east  of  the  ancient  Pelusiac  branch,  which  has 
disappeared  from  the  map  of  modern  Egypt,  but  the 
direction  of  which  is  clearly  indicated  by  the  position 
of  the  ruins  of  several  great  cities  which  stood  on 
its  banks  in  ancient  times.  Beginning  from  the 
south  of  the  country  in  question,  the  city  of  Anu, 
the  same  which  Holy  Scripture  designates  by  the 
name  of  On,  identifies  for  us  the  position  of  the 
Heliopolite  nome  of  the  classic  authors. 

Next,  the  mounds  of  Tell-Bast,  near  the  modern 
village  of  Zagazig,  enable  us  to  fix  the  ancient  site 
of  the  city  of  Pi-bast,  a  name  which  Holy  Scripture 
has  rendered  by  the  very  exact  transcription  of 
Pibeseth,*  while  the  Greeks  called  it  Bubastus.  It 
was  the  chief  city  of  the  ancient  Bubastite  nome. 

Pursuing  our  course  towards  the  north,  the  vast 
mounds,  near  a  modern  town  called  Qous  by  the 
Copts  and  Faqous  by  the  Arabs,  remove  all  doubt  as 
to  the  site  of  the  ancient  city  of  Phacoussa,  Pha- 
coussee,  or  Phacoussan,  which,  according  to  the 
Greek  accounts,  was  regarded  as  the  chief  city  of 
*  Ezek.  XXX.  17. 


208  THE  TRUE  STORY  OF 

the  Arabian  nome.  It  is  the  same  place  to  which 
the  monumental  lists  have  given  the  appellation  of 
Gosem,  a  name  easily  recognized  in  that  of  '  Guesem 
of  Arabia,'  used  by  the  Septuagint  version  as  the 
geographical  translation  of  the  famous  Land  of 
Goshen.* 

Directly  to  the  north,  between  the  Arabian  nome, 
with  its  capital  Gosem,  and  the  Mediterranean  Sea, 
the  monumental  lists  make  known  to  us  a  district, 
the  Egyptian  name  of  which,  *  the  point  of  the 
north,'  indicates  at  once  its  northerly  position.  The 
Greek  writers  call  it  the  Nomos  Sethroites,  a  word 
which  seems  to  be  derived  from  the  appellation 
Set-ro-hatu,  '  the  region  of  the  river-mouths,'  which 
the  ancient  Egyptians  applied  to  this  part  of  their 
country.  While  classical  antiquity  uses  the  name 
of  Heracleopolis  Parva  to  designate  its  chief  town, 
the  monumental  lists  cite  the  same  place  under  the 
name  of  '  Pitom,'  with  the  addition,  '  in  the  country 
of  Sukot.'  Here  we  at  once  see  two  names  of  great 
importance,  which  occur  in  Holy  Scripture  under 
the  same  forms,  the  Pithom  and  the  Succoth  of  the 
Hebrews. 

Without  dwelling,  for  the  moment,  on  this  curious 
discovery,  I  pass  on  to  the  last  district  of  this  region^ 
situate  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  preceding  one, 

*  Gen.  xlv.  10;  xlvi.  34;  xlvii.  4,  6,  27;  Exod.  viii.  22;  ix.  2Q, 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  209 

between  the  Pelusiac  and  Tanitic  branches  of  the 
Nile.  The  Egyptian  monuments  designate  it  by  a 
compound  name,  which  signifies  '  the  beginning  of 
the  Eastern  country,'  in  complete  agreement  with 
its  topographical  position.  Its  chief  town  is  named, 
sometimes  Zoan,  sometimes  Pi-ramses,  '  the  city  of 
Ramses.'  Here  again  we  have  before  us  two  names, 
which  Holy  Scripture  has  preserved  perfectly  in 
the  two  names,  Zoan  and  Ramses,  of  one  and  the 
same  Egyptian  city. 

As  the  new  geographical  definitions  which  I  have 
now  set  forth  involve  certain  necessary  conse- 
quences, I  do  not  for  a  moment  hesitate  to  declare 
that  I  willingly  take  upon  myself  the  whole  re- 
sponsibility, as  much  for  the  accuracy  of  the  philo- 
logical part  of  my  statement,  as  for  the  precision  of 
the  geographical  sites  which  I  have  brought  to  your 
knowledge. 

After  these  remarks,  I  return  to  Pitom  and  Ram- 
ses. When  you  have  entered,  at  Port  Said,  from 
the  Mediterranean  into  the  maritime  Canal  of  Suez, 
your  vessel  crosses  the  middle  of  a  great  plain,  from 
one  end  to  the  other,  before  stopping  on  the  south 
at  the  station  called  by  the  engineers  of  the  canal 
El-Kantara.  But  during  this  transit  you  must  give 
up  all  hope  of  being  cheered  by  the  view  of  those 
verdant  and  smiling  meadows,  those  forests  of  date- 
14 


210  THE   TRUE  STORY  OF 

palms  and  mulberry-trees,  which  give  to  the  in- 
terior of  Lower  Egypt  —  covered  with  numerous 
villages  and  intersected  with  thousands  of  canals  — 
the  picturesque  character  of  a  real  garden  of  God. 
This  vast  plain  stretches  out  from  the  two  sides 
of  the  maritime  canal,  without  affording  your  eye, 
as  it  ranges  over  the  vast  space  to  the  farthest 
bounds  of  the  horizon,  the  least  point  to  rest  upon. 
It  is  a  sea  of  sand,  with  an  infinite  number  of  islets 
covered  with  reeds  and  thorny  plants,  garnished 
with  a  sort  of  white  efflorescence,  which  leads  us 
to  recognize  the  presence  of  salt  water.  In  spite 
of  the  blue  sky,  the  angel  of  death  has  spread  his 
wings  over  this  vast  sad  solitude,  where  the  least 
sign  of  life  seems  an  event.  You  but  rarely  meet 
with  the  tents  of  some  poor  Bedouins,  who  have 
wandered  into  this  desert  to  seek  food  for  their 
lean  cattle. 

But  the  scene  changes  from  the  time  when  the 
Nile,  in  the  two  months  of  January  and  February, 
has  begun  to  cover  the  lands  of  Lower  Egypt  with 
its  waters.  The  vast  plains  of  sand  disappear  be- 
neath the  surface  of  immense  lakes.  The  reeds 
and  rushes,  which  form  large  thickets,  shoot  up 
wonderfully,  and  millions  of  water-birds,  ranged 
along  the  banks  of  the  lagoons  or  collected  in  flocks 
on  the  islets  of  the  marsh,    are  busy  fishing,  dis- 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  211 

puting  with  man  the  rich  prey  of  the  waters.  Then 
come  the  barks  manned  by  the  fishermen  of  Lake 
Menzaleh,  who,  during  the  two  or  three  winter 
months,  ply  their  calling  vigorously,  in  order  after- 
wards to  sell  the  '  fassikh '  (salted  fish)  to  the 
inhabitants  of  the  Delta  and  of  Upper  Egypt. 

Such  is  the  general  character  of  this  region,  which 
I  have  traversed  three  times  at  different  seasons 
of  the  year,  in  order  to  become  acquainted  with 
the  peculiarities  of  its*  surface  ;  and  such  are  the 
impressions  which  I  have  brought  away  from  my 
repeated  visits.  These  are  the  plains,  now  half 
desert,  half  lagoons  and  marshes,  that  correspond 
to  the  territory  of  the  ancient  district  of  the  Se- 
throite  nome,  '  the  point  of  the  East,'  according  to 
the  monuments,  the  capital  of  which  was  called 
Pi-tom,  the  city  of  Pithom  of  the  Bible. 

In  ancient  times  this  district  comprised  both 
banks  of  the  Pelusiac  branch  of  the  Delta,  and 
extended  on  the  western  side  as  far  as  the  eastern 
bank  of  the  Tanitic  branch.  Marshes  and  lagoons, 
with  a  rich  vegetation  consisting  of  rushes  and  reeds, 
of  the  lotus  and,  above  all,  the  papyrus  plant,  are 
met  with  towards  the  sea-shore:  these  are  the 
places  called  by  an  Egyptian  word,  Athu,  or  by  the 
foreign  word  Souf,  that  is,  '  the  marshes  of  papyrus ' 
of  the  Egyptian  texts.     There  were  also  pools  and 


212  THE   TRUE  STORY  OF 

lakes,  called  b}^  the  Semitic  name  of  Birkata,  which 
reached  to  the  neighborhood  of  Pitom.  The  dis- 
trict was  traversed  in  all  directions  by  canals,  two 
of  which  were  near  the  city  of  Pelusium  ;  each 
bearing  a  special  name  which  recalls  the  use  of  a 
Semitic  language  spoken  by  the  inhabitants  of  the 
district  in  question.  The  city  of  Pithom,  identical 
with  that  of  Heracleopolis  Parva,  the  capital  of  the 
Sethroitic  nome  in  the  age  of  the  Greeks  and  Ro- 
mans, was  situate  half-way  on  the  great  road  from 
Pelusium  to  Tanis  :  and  this  indication,  given  on 
the  authority  of  the  itineraries,  furnishes  the  sole 
means  of  fixing  its  position  towards  the  frontier  of 
the  conterminous  district  of  Tanis. 

The  Egyptian  texts  give  us  evident  and  incon- 
testable proofs  that  the  whole  of  this  region,  which 
formed  the  district  of  the  Sethroite  nome,  was  de- 
noted by  the  name  of  Suku,  or  Sukot.  The  foreign 
source  of  this  designation  is  indicated  by  the  mon- 
uments, and  is  proved  by  its  relations  with  the 
Hebrew  words  sok^  sukkah,  in  the  plural  sukkoth, 
which  bear  the  primary  sense  of  *  tent.'  There  is 
nothing  surprising  in  such  an  appellation,  analogies 
to  which  are  found  in  the  names  Scense  Mandrorum, 
Scense  Veteranorum,  Scense  extra  Gerasa,  given  by 
the  ancients  to  three  places  situate  in  Egypt.  In 
these  names,  then,  the  principal  word,  Scense,  'tents,' 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  213 

has  the  same  signification  as  the  Semitico-Egyptian 
word  Sukot,  which  recalls  to  us  the  name  of  Suc- 
coth,  given  in  Holy  Scripture  to  the  first  station  of 
the  Hebrews  when  they  had  left  the  city  of  Ramses. 
This  name  of  '  tents '  takes  its  origin  from  the  en- 
campments of  the  Bedouin  Arabs,  who,  with  the 
permission  of  the  pharaohs,  had  taken  up  their  abode 
in  the  vast  plains  of  the  country  of  Succoth,  and  who, 
from  the  most  remote  periods  of  Egyptian  history, 
had  there  preserved  the  manners,  the  customs,  and 
the  religious  beliefs,  peculiar  to  their  race,  and  had 
spread  the  use  of  Semitic  words,  which  were  at 
length  adopted  officially  by  the  Egyptian  authori- 
ties and   scribes. 

Thus  it  is  that  the  greatest  number  of  the  proper 
names,  used  on  the  monuments  and  in  the  papyri 
to  denote  the  towns,  villages,  and  canals  of  the 
district  of  Succoth  and  of  the  adjacent  nome  of 
Tanis,  are  explained  only  by  means  of  the  vocabu- 
lary of  the  Semitic  languages.  Very  often  the  ex- 
isting Egyptian  names  are  changed  in  such  a  manner 
that  the  Semitic  name  contains  the  exact  translation 
of  the  meaning  of  the  Egyptian  name.  In  this  case 
the  Semites  have  used  the  same  method  that  the 
Greeks  and  Romans  employed,  namely,  to  render 
the  proper  names  of  the  geography  of  Egypt  by 


214  THE   TRUE  STORY  OP 

translation  into  the  corresponding  words  of  their 
own  language.  In  this  process  thej  went  so  far  as 
to  substitute  the  names  of  the  divinities  of  classical 
mythology  for  those  of  the  gods  and  divinities  of 
the  Egyptian  pantheon.  Hence  it  is  that  the  classic 
authors  give  us  names  of  cities  such  as  Andron- 
polis  (the  '  city  of  men '),  Gynsecon-polis  (the  '  city 
of  women  '),  Leonton-polis  (the  '  city  of  lions '), 
Crocodilon-polis,  Lycon-polis,  Elephantine,  that  is, 
the  cities  df  crocodiles,  of  wolves,  of  the  elephant, 
&c.,  which  exhibit  actual  translations  of  the  cor- 
responding Egyptian  names.  And  it  is  thus,  also, 
that  the  same  authors  speak 'of  cities  called  Dios- 
polis,  Hermo-polis,  Helio-polis,  Aphrodito-polis  — 
that  is  to  say,  the  cities  of  the  gods  Zeus,  Hermes, 
Helios  (the  sun),  and  of  the  goddess  Aphrodite  —  in 
order  "to  render  into  Greek  the  Egyptian  names 
No-Amon,  '  the  city  of  Amon,'  Pi-thut,  '  the  city 
of  Thut,'  Pi-tom,  '  the  city  of  the  sun-god  Tom,' 
Pi  Hathor,  '  the  city  of  the  goddess  Hathor.'  The 
Hebrews  did  just  the  same :  and  thus  there  was,  at 
the  entrance  of  the  road  leading  to  Palestine,  near 
the  lake  Sirbonis,  a  small  fortification,  to  which,  as 
early  as  the  time  of  the  nineteenth  dynasty,  the 
Egyptians  gave  the  name  of  Anbu,  that  is,  '  the 
wall'  or  'fence,'  a  name,  which  the  Greeks  trans- 
lated according  to  their  custom,  calling  it  Gerrhon 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  215 

(xb  riQQov^,  or,  in  the  plural,  Gerrha  (rd  riggu').* 
The  Hebrews  likewise  rendered  the  meaning  of  the 
Egyptian  name  by  a  translation,  designating  the 
military  post  on  the  Egyptian  frontier  by  the  name 
of  Shur,  which  in  their  language  signifies  exactly 
the  same  as  the  word  Anbu  in  Egyptian  and  the 
word  Gerrhon  in  Greek,  namely,  '  the  wall.'  This 
Shur  is  the  very  place  which  is  mentioned  in  Holy 
Scripture,  not  only  as  a  frontier  post  between  Egypt 
and  Palestine,  but  also  as  the  place  whose  name 
was  given  to  the  northern  part  of  the  desert  on  that 
side  of  Egypt. 

It  is  in  the  same  manner  that  the  Hebrew  word 
Souph,  —  whose  meaning  of  '  sea-weed,  reeds,  papy- 
rus-plant' is  certified  by  the  dictionaries  of  the 
Hebrew  language,  and  which  was  used  to  denote 
a  town  situate  on  the  Egyptian  frontier,  at  the 
opposite  end  of  the  great  Pharaonic  road  which  led 
towards  the  south  of  the  Dead  Sea,  besides  giving 
its  name  to  the  Yam  Souph,  '  the  sea  of  sea-weed,' 
—  this  name,  I  say,  contains  simply  the  translation 
of  the  Egyptian  word  Athu,  which  again  signifies 
the  same  as  the  Hebrew  word  Souph,  that  is,  '  sea- 
weed, or  the  papyrus  plant,'  and  which  was  applied 

*  There  was  a  Chaldaean  town  of  the  same  name  on  the  Euphra- 
tes, and  another  in  Arabia;  and  a  district  riuong,  or  Ffooot,  on  the 
Borysthenes,  in  European  Sarmatia ;  all  in  positions  where  we 
should  expect  to  find  frontier  fortresses.  —  Ed. 


216  THE  TRUE  STORY  OF 

as  a  general  term  to  denote  all  the  marshes  and 
lagoons  of  Lower  Egypt,  which  are  characterized 
by  their  rich  vegetation,  consisting  of  papyrus  and 
of  rushes.  The  Egyptians,  on  their  part,  knew  so 
well  the  meaning  of  the  Hebrew  word,  that  they 
frequently  adopted  the  foreign  name  of  Souph,  in- 
stead of  the  word  Athu  in  their  own  tongue,  to 
denote  not  only  the  name  of  the  City  of  Weeds,  but 
also  the  Sea  of  Weeds,  the  Yam  Souph,  which  we 
shall  meet  with  further  on. 

After  these  remarks  of  a  philological  character, 
which  have  appeared  to  me  indispensable  for  the 
understanding  of  my  subject,  I  return  to  the  city  of 
Pitom,  the  chief  place  of  the  region  of  Sukot,  about 
which  the  monuments  furnish  us  with  some  very 
curious  pieces  of  information.  I  will  begin  with  the 
divinity  worshipped  at  Pitom  and  in  the  district  of 
Sukot.  Although  the  lists  of  the  nomes,  as  well  as 
the  Egyptian  texts,  expressly  designate  the  sun-god 
Tom  —  the  same  who  had  splendid  temples  at  On 
or  Heliopolis  —  as  the  tutelar  deity  of  Sukot,  they 
nevertheless  add,  that  the  god  Tom  represents  solely 
the  Egyptian  type  corresponding  to  the  (iivinity  of 
Pitom,  who  is  called  by  the  name  of  ankh,  and  sur- 
named  '  the  great  god.'  The  word  ankh,  which  is  of 
Egyptian  origin,  signifies  '  life,'  or  '  he  who  lives,' 
'the  Living  One.'     This  is  the  only  case,  in  the 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  211 

Egyptian  texts,  of  the  occurrence  of  such  a  name 
for  a  god  as  seems  to  exclude  the  notion. of  idolatry. 
And  in  fact,  if  we  take  into  consideration  the 
presence  of  families  of  the  Semitic  race,  who  have 
resided  in  Egypt  at  all  periods  of  her  history, — 
including  the  nation  of  the  Hebrews,  —  we  cannot 
refuse  to  recognize  in  this  divine  name  the  trace  of 
a  religious  tradition,  which  has  been  preserved  even 
in  the  monumental  records  of  the  Egyptians.  I 
dare  not  decide  the  question,  whether  the  god  '  He 
who  Lives'  of  the  Egyptian  text  is  identical  with 
the  Jehovah  of  the  Hebrews.  At  all  events,  every- 
thing tends  to  this  belief,  when  we  remember  that 
the  name  of  Jehovah  contains  the  same  meaning 
as  the  Egyptian  word  ankh,  'He  who  lives.'  Ac- 
cording to  the  monuments,  this  god,  in  whose  honor 
a  great  feast  was  celebrated  on  the  13th  day  of 
the  second  month  of  summer,  was  served,  not  by 
priests,  like  the  other  divinities  of  the  Egyptian 
pantheon,  but  by  two  young  girls,  sisters,  who  bore 
the  title  of  honor  of  Ur-ti,  that  is,  '  the  two  queens.' 
A  serpent,  to  whom  the  Egyptian  texts  give  the 
epithet  of  '  the  magnificent,  splendid,'  was  regarded 
as  the  living  symbol  of  the  god  of  Pitom.  It  bore 
the  name  of  Kereh,  that  is,  '  the  smooth ; '  (compare 
Kep^e,  calvus,  rib3,  smooth,  bald.)  And  this  ser- 
pent, again,   transports   us   into    the   camp   of  the 


218  THE   TRUE  STORY  OF 

children  of  Israel  in  the  wilderness ;  it  recalls  to  us 
the  brazen  serpent  of  Moses,  to  which  the  Hebrews 
offered  the  perfumes  of  incense  until  the  time 
when  king  Hezekiah  decreed  the  abolition  of  this 
ancient  serpent  worship.* 

The  relations  of  the  Hebrews  with  Pitom  and 
Sukot  do  not,  however,  end  here. 

According  to  the  indications  of  the  monuments, 
the  town  of  Pitom,  the  chief  place  of  the  district  of 
Sukot,  had  an  appellation  which  it  owed  to  the  pres- 
ence and  existence  of  its  god  ankh,  '  He  who  lives,' 
or  '  the  Living  One,'  and  which,  in  the  terms  of  the 
Egyptian  language,  was  pronounced  p-aa-ankh, 
'  the  habitation,  or  the  dwelling-place,  of  the  god 
ankh.'  In  conformity  with  this  name,  the  district 
of  Sukot  was  otherwise  called  p-u-nt-paa-ankh,  'the 
district  of  the  dwelling-place  of  the  Living  One.' 
Add  to  this  monumental  name  the  Egyptian  word 
za,  the  well-known  designation  of  the  governor  of  a 
city  or  a  district,  and  you  will  have  the  title  Za-p- 
u-nt-p-aa-ankh,  '  the  governor  of  the  district  of  the 
dwelling-place  of  the  Living  One,'  which  a  Greek 
of  the  time  of  the  Ptolemies  would  have  rendered 
by  the  translation,  'the  nomarch  of  the  Sethroite 
nome.' 

And  now  turn  to  Holy  Scripture :  it  will  inform 

*  Numbers  xxi.  9 ;  2  Kings  xviii.  4, 


THE  EXODUS  OF  ISRAEL.  219 

you  that  the  pharaoh  of  Joseph  honored  his  vizier 
with  the  long  title  of  Zaphnatpaneakh,  which,  letter 
for  letter,  answers  exactly  to  the  long  Egyptian 
word,  the  analysis  of  which  I  have  just  laid  before 
you.  More  than  this,  when  Joseph  made  himself 
known  to  his  astonished  brethren,  he  said  to  them  :  * 
"I  am  Joseph  your  brother;  it  is  not' you  that  sent 
me  into  Egypt,  it  is  God.  It  is  God  who  estab- 
lished me  as  privy  councillor  to  Pharaoh,  and  as 
lord  over  all  his  house."  The  first  title,  in  Hebrew, 
is  written,  Ab  le-Pharaoh,  in  which  the  translators, 
from  the  LXX.  downwards,  recognized  the  Hebrew 
word  Ab, '  father ; '  but  we  learn  from  the  Egyptian 
texts  that,  far  from  being  Hebrew,  the  title  of  Ab 
en  pirao-  designates  the  first  minister  or  officer,  who 
was  attached  exclusively  to  the  household  of  the 
pharaoh.  Several  of  the  precious  historical  papyri 
of  the  time  of  the  nineteenth  dj^nasty,  now  in  the 
British  Museum,  the  texts  of  which  consist  of  sim- 
ple letters  and  communications  written  by  scribes 
and  officers  of  the  court,  relate  to  these  Ab  en  pirao, 
these  superior  officers  of  the  pharaoh,  whose  high 
rank  is  clearly  indicated  by  the  respectful  style  of 
these  scribes  of  inferior*  rank. 

All  these   observations,  the  number  of  which   I 

*  Gen.  xlv.  4,  8.  We  follow  Dr.  Brugsch's  translation,  which 
the  reader  can,  of  course,  compare  with  the  Authorized  Ver- 
sion. —  Ed. 


220  T^E  TRUE  STORY  OF 

could  easily  extend  by  other  examples,  will  serve  to 
demonstrate,  in  general,  the  presence  of  a  foreign 
race  on  the  soil  of  Sukot,  and,  especially,  to  give 
incontestable  proofs  of  the  close  relations  between 
the  Egyptians  and  the  Hebrews.  By  what  we  may 
call  the  international  use  of  words  ^belonging  to 
their  languages,  the  Egyptian  texts  fariiish  us  with 
direct  proofs  which  certify  the  existence  of  foreign 
peoples  in  the  district  of  Pitom. 

The  Egyptian  texts,  with  the  famous  papyrus  of 
the  British  Museum  at  their  head,  tell  us  continu- 
ally of  the  Hiru-pitu,  or  Egyptian  officers,  who  were 
charged  with  the  oversight  of  these  foreign  popu- 
lations residing  in  the  region  of  Sukot.  These 
same  texts  make  known  to  us  the  Adon  (a  word 
entirely  Semitic  in  its  origin)  or  superior  chiefs  of 
Sukot,  magistrates  who  served  as  intermediaries  in 
the  relations  of  the  Egyptian  authorities  with  these 
populations.  This  service,  which  was  not  always 
of  a  peaceable  character,  was  supported  by  a  body 
of  police  (the  Mazaiou),  whose  commander  (the 
Ser)  was  chosen  from  among  the  great  personages 
of  the  pharaonic  court.  The  Egyptian  garrisons 
of  two  fortresses  constructed  on  the  frontiers  of  the 
nome  of  Sukot  watched  the  entrance  and  departure 
of  all  foreigners  into  and  out  of  that  territory. 
The  first,  called  Khetam  (that  is,  the  fortress),  of 


THE  EXODUS  OF  ISRAEL.  221 

Sukot,  was  situate  near  the  town  of  Pelasium.  It 
guarded  the  entrance  into  the  district  of  Sukot 
from  the  side  of  Arabia.  The  other,  called  by  a 
Semitic  name  Segor,  or  Segol,  that  is,  '  the  barrier,' 
of  Sukot,  prevented  foreigners  from  passing  the 
frontier  on  the  southern  side  and  setting  foot  on  the 
territory  of  the  district  adjacent  to  Tanis-Ramses. 
Thus  the  two  forts  were  placed  at  the  two  ends  of 
the  great  road  which  traversed  the  plain  of  Sukot 
in  the  midst  of  its  lakes,  marshes,  and  canals.  The 
description  which  a  Roman  author,  Pliny,  has  left 
us  of  the  nature  of  the  roads  of  this  country, 
may  serve  to  prove  that,  as  early  as  the  begin- 
ning of  our  era,  the  great  road  of  the  district  of 
Sukot  was  somewhat  like  the  track  of  the  pres- 
ent day,  by  which  the  Bedouins  of  the  country  and 
their  families  alone  are  able  to  travel.  As  might 
be  easily  imagined  beforehand,  the  marshy  condi- 
tion of  Sukot  scarcely  permitted  the  foundation  of 
towns  in  the  interior  of  this  district.  Hence  the 
Egyptian  texts,  in  agreement  with  the  notices  of 
the  classic  writers,  speak  only  of  towns  and  forts 
on  the  frontier.  Allow  me  to  direct  your  attention 
especially  to  a  fortress  situate  at  the  east  of  the 
nome  of  Sukot,  on  the  border  of  the  Arabian  desert, 
in  the  neighborl^od  of  a  fresh- water  lake,  and  called 
by  its  Semitic   name,  which  was   adopted   by  the 


222  THE   TRUE  STORY  OF 

Egyptians,  Migdol,  that  is,  'the  tower,'  and  by  its 
purely  Egyptian  name,  Samout.  The  site  of  this 
place  is  fixed  by  the  position  of  Tell-es-Semo.ut,  a 
modern  name  given  to  some  heaps  of  ruins,  which 
at  once  recalls  the  ancient  appellation  of  Samout. 
As  early  as  the  age  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty,  about 
two  hundred  years  before  the  time  of  Moses,  this 
place  was  regarded  as  the  most  northern  point  of 
Egypt,  just  as  on  th6  southern  border  the  city  of 
Elephantine,  or  Souan  (the  Assouan  of  our  time), 
was  considered  the  most  southern  ppint  of  the 
country.  When  king  Amenophis  IV.  summoned 
all  the  workmen  of  the  country,  from  the  city  of 
Elephantine  to  Samout  (Migdol),  the  Egyptian  text, 
which  has  preserved  this  information  for  us,  says 
precisely  the  same  as  does  the  prophet  Ezekiel,  in 
predicting  to  the  Egyptians  of  his  time  the  devasta- 
tion of  their  country  *from  Migdol  as  far  as  Seve 
(Assouan)  on  the  frontier  of  the  land  of  Kush.'  * 
When  I  observe  that  this  Migdol  is  the  only  place 
of  that  name  which  I  have  met  with  in  the  (Egyp- 
tian) geographical  texts,  among  more  than  three 
thousand   geographical    proper   names,    the    proba- 

♦  Ezek.  xxix,  10;  xxx.  6.  In  our  Authorized  Version,  as  so 
frequently  happens,  the  rigkt  translation  is  given  in  the  margin, 
*  from  Migdol  to  Syene,'  the  text  being  wrong,  and  in  fact  non- 
sense :  '  from  the  tower  of  Syene  to  the  border  of  Ethiopia  '  is  like 
saying  '  from  Berwick  to  the  frontier  of  Scotland.'  —  Ed. 


THE  EXODUS  OF  ISRAEL.  223 

bility  at  once  follows,  that  the  Migdol  of  the 
prophet  Ezekiel  is  not  different  from  the  Migdol 
of  the  Exodus. 

It  is  time  to  leave  the  district  of  Sukot,  and  to 
follow  by  way  of  Pitom  the  ancient  road  which  led 
to  Zoan-Tanis,  the  capital  of  the  frontier  district,  a 
distance  of  twenty-two  Roman  miles,  according  to 
the  ancient  itineraries.  A  sandy  plain,  as  vast  as 
it  is  dreary,  called  at  this  day  San  in  remembrance 
of  the  ancient  name  of  Zoan,  and  covered  with 
gigantic  ruins  of  columns,  pillars,  sphinxes,  -  stelae, 
and  stones  of  buildings,  —  all  these  fragments  being 
cut  in  the  hardest  mateiial  from  the  granite  of 
Syene,  —  shows  you  the  position  of  that  city- of 
Tanis,  to  which  the  Egyptian  texts  and  the  classic 
authors  are  agreed  in  giving  the  epithet  of  '  a  great 
and  splendid  city  of  Egypt.'  According  to  the  geo- 
graphical inscriptions,  the  Egyptians  gave  to  this 
plain,  of  which  Tanis  was  the  centre,  the  name  of 
Sokhot  Zoan,  'the  plain  of  Zoan,'  the  origin  of 
which  name  is  traced  back  as  far  as  the  age  of  Ram- 
ses II.  The  author  of  the  78th  Psalm  makes  use 
in  two  verses  (12  and  43)  of  precisely  the  same 
phrase  in  reminding  the  Hebrews  of  his  time  of 
the  miracles  which  God  wrought  before  their  ances- 
tors '  the  children  of  Israel  in  Egypt,  in  the  plain  of 
Zoan."*     This  remarkable  agreement  is  not  acciden- 


224  '^HE   TRUE  STORY  OF 

tal,  for  the  knowledge  of  the  Hebrews  concerning 
all  that  related  to  Tanis  is  proved  by  the  note  of  an 
annalist,  likewise  reported  in  Holy  Scripture,  that 
the  city  of  Hebron  was  built  seven  years  before  the 
foundation  of  Zoan.* 

If  the  name  of  Zoan  —  which  the  Egyptians,  as 
well  as  the  Hebrews,  gave  to  this  -great  city,  and 
which  means  '  a  station  where  beasts  of  burden  are 
laden  before  starting  on  a  journey  '  —  is  of  a  purely 
Semitic  origin,  two  other  names,  which  are  likewise 
given  to  the  same  place  and  are  inscribed  on  the 
monuments  discovered  at  San,  reveal  their  deriva- 
tion from  the  Egyptian  language.  These  are  the 
names  of  Zor  and  Pi-ramses.  The  first,  Zor  — 
sometimes  Zoru  in  the  plural  —  has  the  meaning 
of  the  '  strong '  place,  or  places,  which  agrees  with 
the  nature  of  the  country  lying  towards  the  east 
and  defended  by  a  great  number  of  fortifications, 
of  which  Tanis  was  one  of  the  strongest.! 

The  second  appellation,  Pi-ramses,  '•  the  city  of 
Kamses,'  dates  from  the  time  of  the  second  king  of 


*  Numb.  xiii.  22.  Respecting  the  probable  connection  in  the 
origin  of  the  cities,  which  seems  to  be  implied  in  this  mention  of 
them  together,  see  the  Student's  Ancient  History  of  the  East, 
p.  115.— Ed. 

t  The  Egyptian  name  of  Mazor,  applied  to  this  country,  shows 
us  the  origin  of  the  Hebrew  word  Mazor,  which  is  given  in  Holy 
Scripture  to  the  same  region. 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  225 

that  name,  the  founder  of  all  those  edifices  whose 
gigantic  ruins  still  astonish  the  traveller  of  our  day. 
This  is  the  new  city,  built  close  to  the  ancient  Zor, 
and  so  often  mentioned  in  the  papyri  of  the  British 
Museum,  at  which  Ramses  II.  erected  sanctuaries 
and  temples  in  honor  of  a  circle  of  divinities,  called 
'  the  gods  of  Ramses.'  The  king  caused  himself  also 
to  be  honored  with  a  religious  worship,  and  the 
texts  of  the  later  age  make  mention  of  the  'god- 
king  Ramses,  surnamed  the  very  valiant.'  I  cannot 
omit  to  quote  the  name  of  the  high-priests  who  pre- 
sided over  the  different  services  of  religion  in  the 
sanctuaries  of  Zor-Ramses.  According  to  the  Egyp- 
tian texts  these  priests  bore  the  name  of  Khar-toh, 
that  is,  '  the  warrior.'  The  origin  of  this  appella- 
tion, which  seems  strange  for  persons  so  peaceful, 
is  satisfactorily  explained  by  the  Egyptian  myths 
concerning  the  divinities  of  the  city  of  Ramses.  But 
the  interest  attached  to  this  title  arises,  not  so  much 
from  these  religious  legends,  as  from  the  fact  that 
Holy  Scripture  designates  by  the  same  name  the 
priests  whom  Pharaoh  summoned  to  imitate  the 
miracles  wrought  by  Moses.  The  interpreters  of 
Holy  Scripture  are  agreed  that  the  name  of  Khartu- 
mim,  given  in  the  Bible  to  the  Egyptian  magicians, 
in  spite  of  its  Hebrew  complexion,  is  evidently  de- 
rived from  an  Egyptian  word.  And  here  we  have 
15 


226  THE   TRUE  STORY  OF 

the  word  Khartot,  which  supplies  us  not  only  with 
the  means  of  discovering  the  real  meaning  of  Khar- 
tumim,  but  also  with  a  new  proof  that  the  scene  of 
the  interviews  between  Pharaoh  and  Moses  is  laid 
iri  the  city  of  Zoan-Ramses. 

The  Egyptian  records,  especially  the  papyri, 
abound  in  dates  relating  to  the  building  of  the 
new  city  and  sanctuaries  of  Ramses,  and  to  the 
labors  in  stone  and  in  bricks  with  which  the  work- 
men were  overburdened  to  make  them  complete 
their  task  quickly.  These  Egyptian  documents  fur- 
nish details  so  precise  and  specific  on  this  sort  of 
work,  that  it  is  impossible  not  to  recognize  in  them 
the  most  evident  connection  with  the  'hard  bond- 
age '  and  *  rigorous  service '  of  the  Hebrews  on  the 
occasion  of  building  certain  edifices  at  Pitom  and 
Ramses.*  Any  one  must  be  blind  who  refuses  to 
see  the  light  which  is  beginning  to  shine  into  the 
.darkness  of  thirty  centuries,  and  which  enables  us 
to  transfer  to  their  true  places  the  events  which 
the  good  Fathers  of  the  Church — excellent  Chris- 
tians, indeed,  but  ill  acquainted  with  antiquity  — 
would  have  confounded  till  the  end  of  time,  had 
not  the  monuments  of  the  Khedive  and  the  treas- 
ures of  the  British  Museum  come  in  good  time  to 
•our  help. 

To  alter  the  position  of  the  city  of  Ramses,  in 
*  Exod.  i.  11,  14. 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  227 

defiance  of  the  evidences  of  the  Egyptian  monu- 
ments, woidd  involve  the  introduction  of  irrepara- 
ble confusion  into  the  geographical  order  of  the 
noraes  and  cities  of  Egypt. 

It  was  from  this  city  of  Zoan- Ramses  that,  about 
the  year  1600  before  our  era,  and  in  the  twenty-sec- 
ond year  of  his  glorious  reign,  the  great  conqueror, 
Thutmes  III.,  set  out  at  the  head  of  his  army  to 
attack  the  land  of  Canaan.  It  was  this  city  into 
which,  in  the  fifth  year  of  his  reign,  Ramses  II. 
made  his  triumphal  entry,  after  having  won  his  vic- 
tories over  the  people  of  the  Khetians,  and  in  which, 
sixteen  years  later,  the  same  pharaoh  concluded  the 
.treaty  of  peace  and  alliance  with  the  chief  of  that 
people.  It  was  this  city  whose  great  plains  served  . 
as  the  field  for  the  cavalry  and  troops  of  the  kings 
to  practise  their  warlike  manoeuvres.  It  was  this 
city,  whose  harbor  was  filled  with  Egyptian  and 
Phoenician  vessels,  w^hich  carried  on  the  commerce 
between  Egypt  and  Syria.  It  is  this  city  which 
the  Egyptian  texts  designate  expressly  as  the  end 
of  the  proper  Egyptian  territory  and  the  beginning 
of  that  of  the  foreigner.  It  is' this  city,  of  which  an 
Egyptian  poet  has  left  us  the  beautiful  description 
contained  in  a  papyrus  of  the  British  Museum. 
It  is  the  same  city  where  the  Ramessids  loved  to 
reside,  in   order  to  receive  foreign   embassies  and 


228  THE  TRUE  STORY  OF 

to  gYVQ  orders  to  the  functionaries  of  their  court. 
This  is  the  very  city  where  the  children  of  Israel 
experienced  the  rigors  of  a  long  and  oppressive 
slavery,  where  Moses  wrought  his  miracles  in  the 
presence  of  the  pharaoh  of  his  age  ;  and  it  was  from 
this  same  city  that  the  Hebrews  set  out,  to  quit  the 
fertile  land  of  Egypt. 

We  will  now  follow  them,  stage  by  stage. 

Travellers  by  land,  who  were  leaving  Ramses  to 
pursue  their  journey  towards  the  east,  had  two 
roads  that  they  might  follow.  One  of  these  led, 
in  a  northeasterly  direction,  from  Ramses  to  Pelu- 
sium ;  passing  half-way  through  the  city  of  Pitom, 
situate  at  an  equal  distance  from  Ramses  and  from 
Pelusium.  This  is  that  bad  road,  described  by 
Pliny,  across  the  lagoons,  the  marshes,  and  a  whole 
system  of  canals  of  the  region  of  Sukot.  According 
to  what  the  monuments  tell  us,  this  road  was  not 
very  much  frequented.  It  was  used  by  travellers 
without  baggage,  while  the  pharaohs,  accompanied 
by  their  horses,  chariots,  and  troops,  preferred  the 
great  Pharaonic  road,  the  Sikkeh-es-soultanieh  of 
the  Orientals. 

This  last  contained  four  stations,  each  separated 
from  the  next  by  a  day's  march.  These  were 
Ramses,  '  the  barrier '  of  Sukot,  Khetam,  and  Mig- 
dol.     We  already  know  the  names  and  position  of 


THE  EXODUS  OF  ISRAEL.  229 

these  stations,  with  the  exception  of  the  third,  ealled 
Khetam.  This  word  Khetam,  which  the  Hebrews 
have  rendered  by  Etham,  has  the  general  sense  of 
'  fortress,'  as  I  have  proved  before.  To  distinguish 
it  from  other  Khetams  which  existed  in  Egypt,  and 
especially  from  the  Khetam  of  the  province  of  Sukot, 
situate  near  Pelusium,  the  Egyptian  texts  very  often 
add  to  the  word  the  explanatory  remark,  '  which  is 
situate  in  the  province  of  Zor,'  that  is,  of  Tanis- 
Ramses. 

There  is  not  the  least  doubt  as  to  the  position  of 
this  important  place,  of  which  we  even  possess  a 
drawing  shown  on  a  monument  of  Sethos  I.  at  Kar- 
nali.  According  to  this  drawing,  the  strong  place 
of  Khetam  was  situate  on  both  banks  of  a  river 
(the  Pelusiac  branch  of  the  Nile),  and  the  two 
opposite  parts  of  the  fortress  were  joined  by  a  great 
bridge,  a  Qanthareh  (or  Kantara),  as  it  is  called 
in  Arabic.  At  a  little  distance  from  these  two  for- 
tresses, and  behind  them,  is  found  the  inhabited 
town,  called  in  Egyptian  Tabenet.  While  this 
name  at  once  recalls  the  name  of  Daphnee  (^J&cppat), 
given  by  the   Greek   historian   Herodotus*  to   an 

*  Herod,  ii.  30 :  where  all  the  three  frontier  fortresses  and  their 
objects  are  mentioned,  viz.  on  the  S.,  the  N.E.,  and  the  N.W. : 
inl  Vttf/fiiTlxov  ^aaiUog  cpvXazal  xar iaraarai^  eV  tg  ' EXecpavrlpri 
ndh  TiQog  Mdi6n(x)v  xal  h  ^6.cpvriav  rriai  U^Xovalriav  ^Xlrj 
dh7tQdg'AQu(iltofifal^v(JO}P,xulei'  Magiri  ngog  Ai^vrjg  &Ui]. 


230  THE    TRUE  STORY  OF 

Egyptian  fortress,  the  following  observations  will 
result  in  furnishing  proofs  of  the  greatest  certainty 
for  the  identification  now  proposed.  Herodotus 
speaks,  in  the  first  place,  of  Daphnae,  in  the  plural, 
in  agreement  with  the  existence  of  the  two  for- 
tresses according  to  the  Egyptian  drawing.  He 
gives  them  the  surname  of  '  the  Pelusian '  on  ac- 
count of  the  position  of  the  fortresses  in  question, 
on  the  two  opposite  banks  of  the  Pelusiac  branch. 
Herodotus  says  expressly,  that  at  his  day  (as  in 
former  times)  there  was  in  this  Pelusian  Daphnse 
a  garrison  which  guarded  the  entrance  into  Egypt 
on  the  side  of  Arabia  and  Syria.  The  ruins  of 
these  two  forts,  standing  over  against  one  another, 
still  exist  in  our  day ;  and  the  name  of  Tell-De- 
fenneh,  which  they  bear,  at  once  recalls  the  Egyptian 
name  of  Tabenet  and  the  name  of  Daphnse  men- 
tioned by  Herodotus.  The  remembrance  of  the 
bridge,  the  Qanthareh,  which  joined  the  two  forts 
of  Khetam-Daphnse,  has  been  likewise  preserved 
to  our  time,  for  the  name  of  Guisr-el-Qanthareh,. 
'  the  dike  of  the  bridge,'  which  is  now  applied  to 
a  place  situate  a  little  distance  east  of  Khetam, 
must  be  regarded  as  the  last  reminiscence  of  the 
only  passage,  which,  in  ancient  times,  allowed  a  trav- 
eller to  enter  Egypt  dry-shod  from  the  east. 
Having   thus  re-discovered,   by  means  of   their 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  231 

ancient  names  and  their  modern  positions,  the  four 
geographical  points  which  Holy  Scripture  calls 
Ramses,  Succoth,  Etham,  and  Migdol,  situate  at  a 
day's  distance  from  one  another,  I  am  quite  ready 
to  answer  the  question,  whether  the  Eg}  ptian  texts 
prove  to  us  the  existence  of  a  road  which  led  from 
Ramses  to  Migdol,  through  these  intermediate 
stations  of  Succoth  and  Etham.  Once  more  the 
answer  is  in  the  highest  degree  affirmative. 

A  happy  chance  —  rather  let  us  say,  Divine  Prov- 
idence —  has  preserved,  in  one  of  the  papyri  of  the 
British  Museum,  the  most  precious  *memorial  of  the 
epoch  contemporary  with  the  sojourn  of  the  Israel- 
ites in  Egypt.  This  is  a  simple  letter,  written,  more 
than  thirty  centuries  before  our  time,  by  the  hand 
of  an  Egyptian  scribe,  to  report  his  journey  from 
the  royal  palace  at  Ramses,  which  was  occasioned 
by  the  flight  of  two  domestics. 

"  Thus  (he  says)  I  set  out  from  the  hall  of  the  roj^al 
palace  on  the  9th  day  of  the  3d  month  of  summer  towards 
evening,  in  pursuit  of  the  two  domestics.  Then  I  ar- 
rived at  the  barrier  of  Sukot  on  the  10th  day  of  the 
same  month.  I  was  informed  that  they  (that  is,  the  two 
fugitives)  had  decided  to  go  by  the  southern  route.  On 
the  12th  day  I  arrived  at  Khetam.  There  I  received 
news  that  the  grooms  who  came  from  the  country  [the 
lagoons  of  Suf,  said]  that  the  fugitives  had  got  beyond 
the  region  of  the  Wall  to  the  north  of  the  Migdol  of  King 
Seti  Meneptah." 


232  THE   TRUE  STORY  OF 

If  you  will  substitute,  in  this  precious  letter,  for 
the  mention  of  the  two  domestics  the  name  of 
Moses  and  the  Hebrews,  and  put  in  place  of  the 
scribe  who  pursued  the  two  fugitives  the  pharaoh 
in  person  following  the  traces  of  the  children  of 
Israel,  you  will  have  the  exact  description  of  the 
march  of  the  Hebrews  related  in  Egyptian  terms. 

Exactly  as  the  Hebrews,  according  to  the  biblical 
narrative,  started  on  the  5th  day  of  the  1st  month 
from  the  city  of  Ramses,*  so  our  scribe,  on  the 
9th  day  of  the  11th  month  of  the  Egj^ptian  year, 
quits  the  palace- of  Ramses  to  go  in  pursuit  of  the 
two  fugitives. 

Exactly  as  the  Hebrews  arrive  at  Succoth  on  the 
day  following  their  departure,!  so  the  Egyptian 
enters  Sukot  the  day  after  he  set  out  from  Ramses. 

Exactly  as  the  Hebrews  stop  at  Etham,  on  the 
third  day  from  their  leaving  Ramses,  J  so  the  Egyp- 
tian scribe,  on  the  third  day  of  his  journey,  arrives 
at  Khetam,  where  the  desert  begins. 

Exactly  as  the  two  fugitives,  pursued  by  the 
scribe,  who  dares  no  longer  to  continue  his  route  in 
the  desert,  had  taken  the  northerly  direction  to- 
wards Migdol  and  the  part  called  in  Egyptian  '  the 
Wall,'  in  Greek  '  Gerrhon,'  in  the  Bible  '  Shur,'  — 
all  names  of  the  same  meaning,  —  so  the  Hebrews 

*  Exod.  xii.  37.  t  l^id.  %  Exod.  xiii.  20. 


TEE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  233 

'turned,'  as  Holy  Scripture  says,*  to  enter  on  the 
flats  of  the  lake  Sirbonis. 

To  add  a  single  word  to  these  topographical  com- 
parisons would  only  lessen  their  value.  Truth  is 
simple ;  it  needs  no  long  demonstrations. 

According  to  the  indications  of  the  monuments, 
in  agreement  with  what  the  classical  accounts  tell 
ns,  the  Egyptian  road  led  from  Migdol  towards  the 
Mediterranean  Sea,  as  far  as  the  Wall  of  Gerrhon 
(the  Shur  of  the  Bible),  situate  at  the  (western) 
extremity  of  the  lake  Sirbonis.  This  latter,  which 
was  well  known  to  the  ancients,  had  again  long 
fallen  out  of  remembrance,  and  even  in  the  last 
century  a  French  traveller  in  Egypt  naively  ob- 
served that  '  to  speak  of  the  lake  Sirbon  is  speaking 
Greek  to  the  Arabs.'  f  Divided  ftom  the  Mediter- 
ranean by  a  long  tongue  of  land  which,  in  ancient 
times,  formed  the  only  road  from  Egypt  to  Pales- 
tine, this  lake,  or  rather  this  lagoon,  covered  with 
a  luxuriant  vegetation  of  reeds  and  papyrus,  but 
in  our  days  almost  entirely  dried  up,  concealed  un- 
expected dangers  owing  to  the  nature  of  its  shores 
and  the  presence  of  those  deadly  abysses  of  whict 
a  classic  author  has  left  us  the  following  descrip- 
tion :  j 

*  Exod.  xiv.  2. 

t  Le  Mascrier,  Description  de  VEgypte,  1735,  p.  104. 

X  Diodorus,  i.  30. 


234  THE  TRUE  STORY  OF 

"  On  the  eastern  side,  Egypt  is  protected  in 
part  by  the  Nile,  in  part  by  the  desert  and  marshy 
plains  known  under  the  name  of  Gulfs  (or  Pits, 
xdL  ^dqudqix).  For  between  Coele-Syria  and  Egypt 
there  is  a  lake,  of  very  narrow  width,  but  of  a 
wonderful  depth,  and  extending  in  length  about 
two  hundred  stadia  (twenty  geographical  miles), 
which  is  called  Sirbonis  ;  and  it  exposes  the  trav- 
eller approaching  it  unawares  to  unforeseen  dan- 
gers. For  its  basin  being  ver}'^  narrow  like  a  riband, 
and  surrounded  on  all  sides  by  great  banks  of  sand, 
when  south  winds  blow  for  some  time,  a  quantity 
of  sand  is  drifted  over  it.  This  sand  hides  the 
sheet  of  water  from  the  sight,  and  confuses  the 
appearance  of  the  lake  with  the  dry  land,  so  that 
they  are  indistinguishable.  From  which  cause  many 
have  been  swallowed  up  with  their  whole  armies 
through  unacquaintance  with  the  nature  of  the  spot 
and  through  having  mistaken  the  road.  For  as 
the  traveller  advances  gradually,  the  sand  gives 
way  under  his  feet,  and,  as  if  of  malignant  purpose, 
deceives  those  who  have  ventured  on  it,  till  at 
length,  suspecting  what  is  about  to  happen,  they 
try  to  help  themselves  when  there  is  no  longer  any 
means  of  escaping  safe.  For  a  man  drawn  in  by 
the  swamp  can  neither  swim,  the  movements  of  his 
body  being  hampered  by  the  mud,  nor  can  he  get 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  235 

out,  there  being  no  solid  support  to  raise  himself 
on.  The  water  and  sand  being  so  mixed  that  the 
nature  of  both  is  changed,  the  place  can  neither 
be  forded  nor  crossed  in  boats.  Thus  those  who 
are  caught  in  these  places  are  drawn  to  the  bottom 
of  the  abyss,  having  no  resource  to  help  them- 
selves, as  the  banks  of  sand  sink  with  them.  Such 
is  the  nature  of  these  plains,  with  which  the  name 
of  gulfs  ((?u^«^^a)  agrees  perfectly."* 

Thus  the  Hebrews,  on  approaching  this  tongue 
of  land  in  a  north-easterly  direction,  found  them- 
selves in  face  of  the  gulfs,  or,  in  the  language  of 
the  Egyptian  texts,  in  face  of  the  Khirot  (this  is 

*  In  this  description  and  a  subsequent  passage  (see  p.  239) 
Diodorus  is  generally  thought  to  have  exaggerated  the  fate  which  ■ 
befell  a  part,  at  least,  of  the  Persian  army  of  Artaxerxes  Ochus  in 
B.  c.  350 ;  but  the  discoveries  and  reasonings  of  Dr.  Brugsch  give 
a  far  more  striking  significance  to  the  passage  and  to  Milton's 
image  founded  on  it  {Paradise  Lost,  ii.  592-594)  : 

"  A  gulf  profound  as  that  Serbonian  bog 
Betwixt  Damiata  and  Mount  Casius  old, 
Where  armies  whole  have  sunk." 

As  to  the  different  manner  of  the  catastrophe,  we  may  observe 
that  the  description  of  Diodorus  throws  a  new  light  on  the  descrip- 
tion in  Exodus.  Pharaoh  thought  he  had  caught  the  Israelites 
'  entangled  '  between  the  sea,  the  desert,  and  the  bog  (Exod.  xiv. 
2)  ;  but  when  they  were  led  safely  through  by  the  guiding  pillar 
of  fire,  which  was  turned  into  darkness  for  their  pursuers,  it  was 
the  Egyptians  that  became  entangled  on  the  treacherous  surface, 
through  which  ' their  chariots  dragged  heavily'  (verse  25)  before 
the  whelming  wave  borne  in  from  the  Mediterranean  completed 
their  destruction.  —  Ed. 


236  THE  TRUE  STORY  OF 

the  ancient  word  which  applies  exactly  to  the  gulfs 
of  weedy  lakes),  near  the  cite  of  Gerrhon.  We 
can  now  perfectly  understand  the  biblical  term 
Pihakhiroth,*  a  word  which  literally  signifies  'the 
entrance  to  the  gulfs,'  in  agreement  with  the  geo- 
graphical situation.  This  indication  is  finally  fixed 
with  precision  by  another  place,  named  Baal-zephon, 
for  f  "  The  Lord  spake  unto  Moses  saying,  Speak 
to  the  children  of  Israel,  that  they  turn  and  en- 
camp before  Pihakhiroth,  between  Migdol  and  the 
sea,  opposite  to  (lit.  '  in  the  face  of ')  Baal-zephon  ; 
ye  shall  encamp  opposite  to  it,  by  the  sea." 

The  name  of  Baal-zephon,  which  (as  the  eminent 
Egyptologist  Mr.  Goodwin  has  discovered^  ^'s  met 
with  in  one  of  the  papyri  of  the  British  Museum 
under  its  Egyptian  orthography,  Baali-Zapouna, 
denotes  a  divinity  whose  attribute  is  not  far  to 
^eek.  According  to  the  extremely  curious  indica- 
tions furnished  by  the  Egyptian  texts  on  this  point, 
the  god  Baal-zephon,  the  '  Lord  of  the  North,' 
represented  under  his  Semitic  name  the  Egj'^ptian 
god  Amon,  the  great  bird-catcher  who  frequents 
the  lagoons,  the  lord  of  the  northern  districts  and 
especially  of  the  marshes,  to  whom  the  inscriptions 
expressly  give  the  title  of  Lord  of  the  Khirot,  that 
is  '  gulfs  '  of  the  lagoons  of  papyrus.     The  Greeks, 

*  Exod.  xiv.  2.  t  Ibid. 


THE  EXODUS  OF  ISRAEL.  237 

after  their  manner,  compared  him  with  one  of  their 
corresponding  divine  types,  and  thus  it  was  that 
the  god  Amon  of  the.  lagoons  was  represented,  from 
the  time  of  the  visits  made  to  this  region  by  the 
Greeks,  under  the  new  form  of  a  '  Zeus  Kasios 
(Casius).'  The  geographical  epithet  of  Casius,  given 
to  this  Zeus,  is  explained  by  the  Semitico-Egyptian 
name  of  the  region  where  his  temple  was  built. 
This  is  Hazi,  or  Hazion,  that  is,  'the  land  of  the 
asylum,'  a  name  which  perfectly  suits  the  position 
of  a  sanctuary  situate  at  the  most  advanced  point 
of  the  Egyptian  frontiers  towards  the  east. 

It  was  on  this  naprow  tongue  of  land,  bounded 
on  the  one  side  by  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  on  the 
other  by  the  lagoons  of  weeds,  between  the  entrance 
to  the  Khiroth,  or  the  gulfs,  on  the  west,  and  the 
sanctuary  of  Baal-zephon,  on  the  east,  that  the  great 
catastrophe  took  place.  I  may  repeat  what  I  have 
already  said  upon  this  subject  in  another  place. 

After  the  Hebrews,  marching  on  foot,  had  cleared 
the  flats  which  extend  between  the  Mediterranean 
Sea  and  the  lake  Sirbonis,  a  great  wave  took  by 
surprise  the  Egyptian  cavalry  and  the  captains  of 
the  war-chariots,  who  pursued  the  Hebrews.  Ham- 
pered in  their  movements  by  their  frightened  horses 
and  their  disordered  chariots,  these  captains  and 
cavaliers  suffered  what,  in   the  course  of  history, 


238  THE  TRUE  STORY  OF 

has  occasionally  befallen  not  only  simple  travellers, 
but  whole  armies.  True,  the  miracle  then  ceases 
to  be  a  miracle  ;  but,  let  us  avow  it  with  full  sin- 
cerity, the  Providence  of  God  still  maintains  its 
place  and  authority.* 

When,  in  the  first  century  of  our  era,  the  geog- 
rapher Strabo,  a  thoughtful  man  and  a  good  ob- 
server, was  travelling  in  Egypt,  he  made  the  follow- 
ing entry  in  his  journal : 

"  At  the  time  when  I  was  staying  at  Alexandria 
the  sea  rose  so  high  about  Pelusium  and  Mount 
Casius  that  it  inundated  the  land,  and  made  the 
mountain  an  island,  so  that  the  road,  which  leads 
past  it  to  Phoenicia,  became  practicable  for  vessels." 
(Strabo,  i.  p.  58.) 

*  Dr.  Brugsch  has  here  made  a  perfectly  gratuitous  concession, 
and  fallen  into  the  common  error  of  confounding  a  miracle  with  a 
special  providence.  The  essence  of  the  miracle  consists  in  the 
attestation  of  the  Divine  presence  with  His  messenger  by  the  time 
and  circumstances  of  an  act,  which  may  nevertheless  be  in  itself 
an  application  of  what  we  call  the  laws  of  nature  to  a  particular 
case.  It  shows  the  Creator,  whose  word  established  the  laws  of 
nature  —  ('  He  spake  and  it  was  done.  He  commanded  and  it 
stood  fast')  —repeating  the  word  through  his  prophet  or  minister, 
by  which  those  laws  are  applied  to  a  special  purpose  and  occasion. 
Thus  here  the  wind  and  sea  waves  are  the  natural  instruments : 
their  use,  at  the  will  of  God  and  the  signal  given  by  Moses,  con- 
stitute the  miracle,  without  which  all  becomes  unmeaning.  —  Ed. 

The  important  fact  is  that  the  destruction  of  the  Egyptian  host  is 
shown  to  have  been  brought  about  by  the  operation  of  natural 
forces.  This  being  established,  it  does  not  matter  wliether  theolo- 
gians call  it  a  miracle,  or  an  instance  of  divine  interposition.  — U. 


THE  EXODUS  OF  ISRAEL.  239 

Another  event  of  the  same  kind  is  related  by  an 
ancient  historian.  Diodorus,  speaking  of  a  campaign 
of  the  Persian  king  Artaxerxes  against  Egypt,  men- 
tions a  catastrophe  which  befell  his  army  in  the 
same  place :  * 

"  When  the  king  of  Persia,"  he  says,  "  had  gath- 
ered all  his  forces,  he  led  them  against  Egypt.  Bat 
coming  upon  the  great  lake,  about  which  are  the 
places  called  the  gulfs,  he  lost  a  part  of  his  army, 
because  he  was  unaware  of  the  nature  of  that 
region." 

Without  intending  to  make  the  least  allusion  to 
the  passage  of  the  Hebrews,  these  authors  inform 
us  incidentally  of  historical  facts,  which  are  in  per- 
fect agreement  with  all  that  the  sacred  books  tell 
us  of  the  passage  of  the  Hebrews  across  the  sea. 

Far  from  diminishing  the  value  of  the  sacred 
records  on  the  subject  of  the  departure  of  the  He- 
brews out  of  Egypt,  the  Egyptian  monuments,  on 
the  faith  of  which  we  are  compelled  to  change  our 
ideas  respecting  the  passage  of  the  Red  Sea  —  tra- 
ditions cherished  from  our  infancy  —  the  Egyptian 
monuments,  I  say,  contribute  rather  to  furnish  the 
most  striking  proofs  of  the  veracity  of  the  biblical 
narratives,  and  thus  to  reassure  weak  and  sceptical 
minds  of  the  supreme  authority  and  the  authenticity 
of  the  sacred  books. 

*  Diodorus,  xvi.  46. 


240  THE   TRUE  STORY  OF 

If,  during  the  course  of  eighteen  centuries,  the 
interpreters  have  misunderstood  and  mistranslated 
the  geographical  notions  contained  in  Holy  Scrip- 
ture, the  error  is  certainly:  not  due  to  the  sacred  his- 
tory, but  to  those  who,  without  knowledge  of  the 
history  and  geography  of  ancient  times,  have  at- 
tempted the  task  of  reconstructing  the  Exodus  of 
the  Hebrews,  at  any  cost,  on  the  level  of  their  own 
imperfect  comprehension. 

Permit  me  still  one  last  word  on  the  sequel  of  the 
march  of  the  Hebrews  after  their  passage  across  the 
gulfs.  The  sacred  books  tell  us:*  "Then  Moses 
led  the  Israelites,  from  the  sea  of  weeds,  and  they 
went  out  into  the  desert  of  Shur,  and  having  gone 
three  days  in  the  desert,  they  found  no  water. 
From  thence  they  came  to  Marah,  but  they  could 
not  drink  of  the  waters  of  Marah,  because  they 
were  bitter.  Wherefore  the  place  was  called  Ma- 
rah (bitter).  Then  they  came  to  Elim,  where  were 
twelve  wells  of  water  and  seventy  palm-trees ;  and 
they  encamped  there  by  the  waters."! 

All  these  indications  agree  —  as  might  have  been 
expected  beforehand  —  with  our  new  views  on  the 
route  of  the  Israelites.  After  reaching  the  Egyp- 
tian fortress  near  the  sanctuary  of  the  god  Baal- 
zephon,  which  stood  on  one  of  the  heights  of  Mount 
Casius,  the  Hebrews  found  in  front  of  them  the  road 

*    T7'-»./^/1     v,r     OQ     9A  +   TT.vrirl     -s-ir     97. 


THE  EXODUS   OF  ISRAEL.  241 

which  led  from  Egypt  to  the  land  of  the  Philistines. 
According  to  the  command  of  God,  forbidding  them 
to  follow  this  route,"^  they  turned  southwards,  and 
thus  came  to  the  desert  of  Shur.  This  desert  of 
*  the  Wall '  —  so  called  from  a  place  named  in 
Egyptian  '  the  Wall,'  and  in  Greek  '  Gerrhon,'  a 
word  which  likewise  signifies  '  the  Wall,'  as  I  have 
shown  above  —  lay  to  the  east  of  the  two  districts 
of  Pitom  and  Ramses.  There  was  in  this  desert  a 
road,  but  little  frequented,  towards  the  Gulf  of 
Suez  (as  we  now  call  it),  a  road  which  the  Roman 
writer  has  characterized  as  '  rugged  with  mountains 
and  wanting  in  water-springs.'  f 

The  bitter  waters,  at  the  place  called  Marah,  are 
recognized  in  the  Bitter  Lakes  of  the  Isthmus  of 
Suez.  Elim  is  the  place  which  the  Egyptian  mon- 
uments designate  by  the  name  of  Aa-lim  or  Tent- 
lim,  that  is  'the  town  of  fish,'  situate  near  the  Gulf 
of  Suez,  in  a  northerly  direction. 

When  the  Jews  arrived  at  Elim,  the  words  of 
Holy  Scripture  — "But  God  caused  the  people  to 
make  a  circuit,  by  the  way  of  the  wilderness,  to- 
wards the  Sea  of  Weeds"  f  — were  definitively  ac- 
complished. 

*  Exod.  xiii.  17. 

t  Plin.  H.  N.  vi.  33  :  '  asperum  montibus  et  in  ops  aquarum.* 

X  Exod.  xiii.  18. 

16 


242  THE  EXODUS  OF  ISRAEL. 

To  follow  the  Hebrews,  stage  by  stage,  till  their 
arrival  at  Mount  Sinai,  is  not  our  present  task,  nor 
within  the  scope  of  this  Conference.  I  will  only 
say  that  the  Egyptian  monuments  contain  all  the 
materials  necessary  for  the  recovery  of  their  route, 
and  for  the  identification  of  the  Hebrew  names  of 
the  different  stations  with  their  corresponding  names 
in  Egyptian.* 

*  See  the   mention,  in  the   prefixed  'Advertisement'  of  the 
Memoir  on  this  subject  in  Dr.  Brugsch's  Bihel  und  Denkmaeler. 


APPENDIX. 


THE  TABLE   OF  ABYDtJS. 

List  of  the  Kings,  with  their  Epochs,  who  ruled  in  Egypt, 
FROM  the  First  Pharaoh,  Mena,  to  the  End  of  the  Thirty- 
first  Dynasty. 

Their  names  and  order,  down  to  the  Pharaoh  Ramses  II.  (about 
B.  c.  1350),  are  founded  on  the  List  of  Kings  in  tlie  Table  of 
Abydus  (Nos.  1-77). 

The  numbers  added,  to  mark  their  Epochs,  refer  to  the  succes- 
sion of  generations  assumed  in  our  work;  but  these,  from  the 
year  GGQ  onwards,  are  superseded  by  the  regnal  years  actually 
proved. 

First  Dynasty  :   op  Thinis.  b.  c. 

1.  Mena, 4400 

2.  Tola, 4366 

3.  Atoth, 4333 

4.  Ata, 4300 

5.  Sapti, 4266 

6.  Mirbapen, 4233 

7.  (Semempses), 4200 

8.  Qebeh, .  4166 

Second  Dynasty  :   of  Thinis. 

9.  Buzau, 4133 

10.  Kakau,  .         .         ,         .         .         .         .  4100 

11.  Bainnuter, 4066 

12.  Utnas, 4033 

13.  Seuta, 4000 

243 


244 


APPENDIX. 


Third  Dynasty  :   op  Memphis.  '  b.  c. 

14.  Zazai,  3966 

15.  Nebka, 3933 

16.  Toser  [sa], 3900 

17.  Tota, 3866 

18.  Setes,    .        ...        .        .        .  3833 

19.  Noferkara,         .        .        .        .        .        .  3800 

20.  Senoferu 3766 

Fourth  Dynasty:    of  Memphis. 

21.  Khufu, 3733 

22.  Ratatf, 3700 

23.  Khafra, 3666 

24.  Menkara,        .         .         .         .         .         .  3633 

25.  Shepseskaf, 3600 


Fifth  Dynasty:   of  Elephantine. 

26.  Uskaf,    . 

27.  Sahura,      . 

28.  Keka,     . 

29.  Noferfra,  . 

30.  Ranuser, 

31.  Menkauhor, 

32.  Tatkara, 

33.  Unas, 


Sixth  Dynasty  :   of  Memph 

34.  Uskara, 

35.  Teta, 

36.  Merira  Pepi,  . 

37.  Merenra,    . 

38.  Noferkara, 

39.  Merenra  Zafemsaf,    . 

Seventh  and  Ninth  Dynast 

40.  Nuterkara, 

41.  Menkara,  .         . 

42.  Noferkara,     , 


3566 
.     3533 

3500 
.    3466 

3433 
.     3400 

3366 
".    3333 


s. 


ES. 


3300 
3266 
3233 
3200 
3166 
3133 


3100 
3066 
3033 


APPENDIX. 

43.  Noferkara  Nebi, 

44.  Tatkara  Shema,     . 

45.  Noferkara  Khontu,    . 

46.  Merenhor, 

47.  Senoferka, 

48.  Kanka,  .... 

49.  Noferkara  Terel, 

50.  Noferkahor,  . 
61.  Noferkara  Pepiseneb, 

52.  Noferkara  Annu,    . 

53.  .  .  .  kaura, 

54.  Noferkaura,   . 

65.  Noferkauhor,    . 

66.  Noferarkara,  . 

57.  Nebkherra  Mentuhotep,    . 

58.  Sankhkara,    . 

Twelfth  Dynasty:    of  Thebes. 

59.  Amenemhat  I., 

60.  Usurtasen  I., 

61.  Amenemhat  II., 

62.  Usurtasen  II., 

63.  Usurtasen  III., 

64.  Araenembat  III.,  . 

65.  Amenembat  IV., 

A  gap,  which  comprises  more  than 
and  during  which  the  time  of 
kings  falls.      In  all,  five  dynast 

XVII.) 


245 


Eighteenth  Dynasty  : 
QQ.   Aahmes, 

67.  Amenhotep  I.,  . 

68.  Thutmes  I., 

69.  Thutmes  II.       . 

70.  Thutmes  III., 

71.  Amenhotep  II., 

72.  Thutmes  IV., 

73.  Amenhotep  III., 


OF  Thebes 


B.  c. 

3000 
2966 
2933 
2900 
2866 
2833 
2800 
2766 
2733 
2700 
2666 
2633 
2600 
2566 
2533 
2500 


.  2466 

2433 

.  2400 

2366 

.  2333 

2300 

.  2266 

500  years,  ^  2233 

■"  Hyksos-  I  to 

(xiii.—  j  1733 


the 


les 


Jnoo 
(circ.) 


1700 
1666 
1633 

1600 

1566 
1533 
1500 


246  APPENDIX. 

B.  C. 

74.  Horemhib, 1466 

(One  generation  of  heretic  kings),       .        .         1433 

Nineteenth  Dynasty  :    of  Thebes. 

75.  Ramessu  I., 1400 

76.  Mineptah  I.  Seti  I.,       .         .         .         .         1366 

77.  Miamun  I.  Ramessu  II.,  ....  1333 
Mineptah  II.  Hotephima,  .  .  .  1300. 
Seti  II.  Mineptah  III.,  .  .  ,  .  1266 
Setnakht  Merer  Miamun  II.,         .         ,  1233 

Twentieth  Dynasty:   of  Thebes. 

Kamessu  III.  Haq-On, 1200 

Ramessu  IV., 

Ramessu  VI.,  .         •         .         .         . 

Meritum, .      [  1166 

Ramessu  VII., 

Ramessu  VIII., 

Ramessu  IX.— XII., 1133 

Twenty-first  Dynasty:    of  Thebes  and  Tanis. 

Hirhor,  . 1100 

Piankhi,   . 1066 

Pinotem  I., 1033 

Pisebkhan  I., 1000 

Twenty-second  Dynasty:   of  Bubastus. 

Shashanql,, 966 

Usarkon  I., 933 

Takeloth  I., .  900 

Usarkon  IT., 866 

Shashanqll.,        ......  833 

Takeloth  II.,    .        .        .        .        .         .         .800 

Twenty-third  Dynasty  :  of  Tanis  and  Thebes. 
Usarkon 766 

Twenty-fourth  Dynasty:   of  Sais  and  Memphis.. 
Bokenranef, 733 


APPENDIX.  247 


I    700 


Twenty-fifth  Dynasty:   the  Ethiopians.  b.  c. 

Shabak,         , 

Shabatak, 

Taharaqa, 693 

Twenty-sixth  Dynasty:    op  Sais. 

Psamethik  I., ^QQ 

Neku, 612 

Psamethik  II., 596 

Uahabra, 691 

Aahmes, 572 

Psamethik  III., 528 

Twenty-seventh  Dynasty:    the  Persians. 

Cambyses, 527 

Darius  I.,      .         .         .         .         .         .         .  521 

Xerxes  I., 486 

Artaxerxes,           ......  465 

Xerxes  II., 425 

Sogdianus,    .......  — 

Darius  II., 424 

Twenty-eighth  Dynasty. 
(Amyrtaeus.) 

Twenty-ninth  Dynasty  :    of  Mendes. 

Naifaurot  I.,  .         .         ...         .399 

Hagar, 393 

Psamut,         .......  380 

Naifaurot  II., 379 

Thirtii  TH  Dynasty:    of  Sebennytus. 

Nakhthorib, 378 

Ziho, 360 

Nahktnebef, 358 


248  APPENDIX. 


Thirty-first  Dynasty  :    the  Persians.  b.  c. 

Ochus, 340 

Arses, 338 

Darius  III.,        .         .         .         .        .         .         .     336 

Conquest  of  Egypt  by  Alexander  the  Great,        332 


OBELISKS  OF  THUTMES  III.  AT  HELIOPOLIS. 

(Note  to  page  139.) 

One  of  the  obelisks  set  up  by  Thutmes  III.  at  Heliopolis  has  a 
special  interest  for  English  readers.  Besides  the  largest  pair 
mentioned  by  Dr.  Brugsch,  now  at  Constantinople  and  Rome,  a 
smaller  pair  were  transported  to  Alexandria  under  Tiberius,  and 
set  up  in  front  of  Ca9sar's  temple,  where  they  obtained  the  well- 
known  name  of  '  Cleopatra's  Needles.'  One  of  them  still  stands 
in  its  place ;  the  other,  after  lying  prostrate  for  centuries  in  the 
sand,  was  presented  to  England  by  Mehemet  Ali  Pasha  in  1820,  as 
a  memorial  of  the  famous  Egyptian  campaign  of  1801.  But  the 
intention  of  transporting  it  to  England  was  only  fulfilled  in  1878 
by  the  munificence  of  the  eminent  surgeon,  Mr.  Erasmus  Wilson, 
and  the  persevering  enterprise  of  Mr.  John  Dixon,  C.  E.,  and  it  is 
now  erected  on  the  Thames  Embankment.  Its  height  is  sixty- 
eight  feet  five  inches  (less  three  and  one  half  inches  cut  oflf  from 
the  broken  end  to  give  the  ba~se  an  even  surface).  The  hieroglj'phs 
on  two  of  its  faces  express  the  titles  of  Thutmes  III.;  on  the  other 
two,  Ramses  II.  has  added  his  own ;  illustrating  Dr.  Brugsch's 
remark  on  the  ofiicial  pomp,  devoid  of  historical  information, 
which  is  the  usual  substance  of  the  inscriptions  on  Egyptian 
obelisk*.  The  inscriptions  have  been  translated  by  Dr.  Birch; 
and  a  full  account  of  the  obelisk,  from  jts  cutting  out  of  the 
quarries  at  Syene  to  its  adventurous  voyage  across  the  Bay  of 
Biscay,  has  been  published  by  Mr.  Erasmus  Wilson,  and  in  Mr. 
Dixon's  paper,  illustrated  with  plans,  in  the  'Proceedings  of  the 
Royal  United  Service  Institution.'      The  very  similar  inscriptions 


APPENDIX.  249 

of  Thutmes  III.  and  Ramses  II.  on  the  other  obelisk,  still  stand- 
ing at  Alexandria,  are  translated  by  M.  Chabas  in  the  'Records 
of  the  Past,'  Vol.  X.  pp.  21,  foil.  —  Ed. 


PASSAGES   OF   SCRIPTURE  TO  WHICH 
REFERENCE   IS   MADE. 

And  Joseph  was  brought  down  to  Egypt :  and  Potiphar,  an  of- 
ficer of  Pharaoh,  captain  of  the  guard,  an  Egyptian,  bought  him 
of  the  hands  of  the  Ishmaelites,  which  had  brought  him  down 
thither.  And  the  Lord  was  with  Joseph,  and  he  was  a  prosperous 
man ;  and  he  was  in  the  house  of  his  master  the  Egyptian.  And 
his  master  saw  that  the  Lord  was  with  him,  and  that  the  Lord 
made  all  that  he  did  to  prosper  in  his  hand.  And  Joseph  found 
grace  in  his  sight,  and  he  served  him :  and  he  made  him  overseer 
over  his  house,  and  all  that  he  had  he  put  into  his  hand.  And  it 
came  to  pass  from  the  time  that  he  had  made  him  overseer  in  his 
house,  and  over  all  that  he  had,  that  the  Lord  blessed  the  Egyp- 
tian's house  for  Joseph's  sake ;  and  the  blessing  of  the  Lord  was 
upon  all  that  he  had  in  the  house,  and  in  the  field.  And  he  left 
all  that  he  had  in  Joseph's  hand ;  and  he  knew  not  aught  he  had, 
save  the  bread  which  he  did  eat.  And  Joseph  was  a  goodly  per- 
son, and  well  favored.  —  Gen.  xxxix.  1-6. 

And  Pharaoh  said  unto  Joseph,  See,  I  have  set  thee  over  all  the 
land  of  Egypt.  And  Pharaoh  took  off  his  ring  from  his  hand,  and 
put  it  upon  Joseph's  hand,  and  arrayed  him  in  vestures  of  fine 
linen,  and  put  a  gold  chain  about  his  neck;  and  he  made  him  to 
ride  in  the  second  chariot  which  he  had :  and  they  cried  before 
him.  Bow  the  knee  :  and  he  made  him  ruler  over  all  the  land  of 
Egypt  And  Pharaoh  said  unto  Joseph,  I  am  Pharaoh,  and  with- 
out thee  shall  no  man  lift  up  his  hand  or  foot  in  all  the  land  of 
Egypt.  And  Pharaoh  called  Joseph's  name,  Zaplmath-paaneah ; 
and  he  gave  him  to  wife  Asenath  the  daughter  of  Poti-pherah,  priest 
of  On.  And  Joseph  went  out  over  all  the  land  of  Egypt.  —  Gen. 
xli.  41-45. 


250  APPENDIX. 

They  said  moreover  unto  Pharaoh,  For  to  sojourn  in  the  land 
are  we  come  :  for  thy  servants  liave  no  pasture  for  their  flocks ; 
for  the  famine  is  sore  in  the  land  of  Canaan :  now  therefore,  we 
pray  thee,  let  thy  servants  dwell  in  the  land  of  Goshen. 

And  Joseph  placed  his  father  and  his  brethren,  and  gave  them 
a  possession  in  the  land  of  Egypt,  in  the  best  of  the  land,  in  the 
land  of  Rameses,  as  Pharaoh  had  commanded. 

And  Israel  dwelt  in  the  land  of  Egypt,  in  the  country  of  Goshen, 
and  they  had  possessions  therein,  and  grew,  and  nmltiplied  ex- 
ceedingly. —  Gen.  xlvii.  4,  11,  27. 

Now  there  arose  up  a  new  king  over  Egypt  which  knew  not 
Joseph.  And  he  said  unto  his  people,  Behold,  the  people  of  the 
children  of  Israel  are  more  and  mightier  than  we :  Come  on,  let 
us  deal  wisely  with  them,  lest  they  multiply,  and  it  come  to  pass, 
that,  wlien  there  falleth  out  any  war,  they  join  also  unto  our  ene- 
mies, and  fight  against  us,  and  so  get  them  up  out  of  the  land. 
Tlierefore  they  did  set  over  them  taskmasters  to  afflict  them  with 
their  burdens.  And  they  built  for  Pharaoh  treasure  cities,  Pithom 
and  Raamses.  But  the  more  they  afflicted  them,  the  more  they  mul- 
tiplied and  grew.  And  tliey  were  grieved  because  of  the  children 
of  Israel.  And  the  Egyptians  made  the  children  of  Israel  to  serve 
with  rigor.  And  they  made  their  lives  bitter  with  hard  bondage, 
in  mortar,  and  in  brick,  and  in  all  manner  of  service  in  the  field : 
all  their  service,  wherein  they  made  them  serve,  was  with  rigor.  — 
Ex.  i.  8-U. 

And  the  daughter  of  Pharaoh  came  down  to  wash  herself  at  the 
river ;  and  her  maidens  walked  along  by  the  river's  side  :  and  when 
she  saw  the  ark  among  the  flags,  she  sent  her  maid  to  fetch  it. 
And  when  she  had  opened  it,  she  saw  the  child:  and,  behold,  the 
babe  wept.  And  she  had  compassion  on  him,  and  said.  This  is 
one  of  the  Hebrews'  children.  Ttien  said  his  sister  to  Pharaoh's 
daughter,  Shall  I  go  and  call  to  thee  a  nurse  of  the  Hebrew  wo- 
men, that  she  may  nurse  the  child  for  thee?  And  Pharaoh's 
daughter  said  to  her.  Go.  And  the  maid  went  and  called  the 
child's  mother.  And  Pharaoh's  daughter  said  unto  her,  Take  this 
child  away  and  nurse  it  for  mo,  and  I  will  give  thee  thy  wages. 
And  the  woman  took  the  cliild,  and  nursed  it.  And  the  child  grew, 
and  she  brought  him  unto  Pharaoh's  daughter,  and  he  became  her 


APPENDIX.  251 

son.    And  she  called  his  name  Moses :  and  she  said,  Because  I 
drew  him  out  of  the  water.  — Ex.  ii.  6-10. 

And  the  children  of  Israel  journeyed  from  Rameses  to  Succoth, 
about  six  hundred  thousand  on  foot  that  were  men,  beside  chil- 
dren. — Ex.  xii.  37. 

And  they  took  their  journey  from  Succoth,  and  encamped  in 
Etham,  in  the  edge  of  the  wilderness.  — Ex.  xiii.  20. 

And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  saying,  Speak  unto  the  children 
of  Israel,  that  they  turn  and  encamp  before  Pi-hahiroth,  between 
Migdol  and  the  sea,  over  against  Baal-zephon :  before  it  shall  ye 
encamp  by  the  sea. 

But  the  Egyptians  pursued  after  them,  all  the  horses  and  char- 
iots of  Pharaoh,  and  his  horsemen,  and  his  army,  and  overtook 
them  encamping  by  the  sea,  beside  Pi-hahiroth,  before  Baal- 
zephon. — Ex.  xiv.  1,  2,  9. 

So  Moses  brought  Israel  from  the  Red  Sea,  and  they  went  out 
into  the  wilderness  of  Shur ;  and  they  went  three  days  in  the  wil- 
derness, and  found  no  water.  And  when  they  came  to  Marah, 
they  could  not  drink  of  the  waters  of  Marah,  for  they  were  bitter : 
therefore  the  nameof  it  was  called  Marah. 

And  they  came  to  Elim,  where  were  twelve  wells  of  water,  and 
threescore  and  ten  palm  trees :  and  they  encamped  there  by  the 
waters.  —Ex.  xv.  22,  23,  27. 


NOTES. 


The  body  of  this  work  was  written  in  German,  and  the  conclud- 
ing Memoir  in  French.  The  translation  was  begun  by  the  late 
Henry  Danby  Seymour,  F.R.G.S.,  and  was  completed  by  Philip 
Smith,  B.A.  Most  of  the  foot-notes  are  by  Dr.  Brugsch;  those 
by  the  latter  of  the  translators  are  signed  "  Ed."  A  few  have  been 
added  by  the  editor  of  the  present  compilation. 

The  chief  difficulty  that  presents  itself  to  the  English  reader  is 
the  confusion  of  names  arising  from  the  different  modes  of  repre- 
senting the  ancient  symbols  of  sounds  in  modern  letters.  Dr. 
Brugsch  has  adopted  a  mode  of  spelling  which  is  unusual,  and  is 
not  uniform.  He  has  followed  the  (^erman  use  of  letters  generally, 
though  in  the  Memoir  his  method  is  often  like  the  French.  In  his 
reproduction  of  Egyptian  names,  a  has  the  broad  sound  as  in  fa- 
ther, e  the  sound  of  a,  i  the  sound  of  e,  and  o  is  generally  long. 
Consonants  are  used  without  much  system.  K  or  Kh  and  Q  (with- 
out the  u  following)  appear  to  be  equivalents.  5' has  generally  the 
sound  of  Sh  at  the  beginning  of  a  word.  The  liquids  I  and  r  are 
interchangeable ;  so,  sometimes,  are  u  and  v.  Thus  we  have  Ribu 
or  Libu ;  Ruten  or  Luten ;  Khar,  Char,  Khal  or  Chal ;  Nahar  or 
Nahal ;  Rutennu  or  Lutennu ;  Khetam  or  Chetam ;  Boolaq  or  Bou- 
lak;  Kheta,  Khita,  Khiti  or  Kiti;  Avaris,  Auaris  or  Awaris.  So, 
also,  Pi-tom,  Pithom  or  Pitum:  Serbonis  or  Sirbonis.  The  use 
of  Q  and  q  is  noticeable,  as  in  Qebeh  and  Saqqarah. 

Page  46.  Horus,  a  god,  fabled  as  an  ancestor  of  pharaohs,  son 
of  Osiris  and  Isis. 

P.  87.  Ramessides,  Ramesids,  the  pharaohs  that  bore  the  name 
of  Ramses  or  Ramessu. 

253 


254  NOTES. 

Pp.  97,  98.  The  note  by  Dr.  Brugsch  on  the  pronunciation  of 
Khufu  (Shufu,  Shoofoo)  shows  how  difficult  it  is  to  understand 
the  resemblance  of  modern  to  ancient  sounds. 

P.  117.  ^^  I  gained  a  hand"  means  that  having  killed  an  enemy- 
he  cut  off  one  of  his  hands  as  a  trophy. 

P.  119.     Kush,  Nubia. 

P.  133.  The  title  Zaphnatpaneakh  is  translated  or  "guessed" 
by  one  of  the  principal  commentators  as  "revealer  of  the  secret"! 

P.  189.  Scarabceus,  literally  a  beetle,  a  favorite  form  of  golden 
ornament. 

P.  154.  Ra  appears  to  have  been  the  sun-god  of  the  east,  or 
morning;   Tom^  or  Toom,  the  god  of  the  west,  or  the  setting  sun. 

P.  184.  Dr.  Brugsch  had  already  inserted  this  document  on 
page  82. 

Mineptah  was  the  second  title  of  Seti  I. ;  and  his  son  and  suc- 
cessor, who  is  the  only  one  that  wore  the  name  as  his  leading  title, 
is  called  sometimes  Mineptah  I.  and  sometimes  II.  The  name 
signifies  '*  the  friend  of  Ptah." 

P.  205.  Membra  disjecta,  the  scattered  parts  of  the  body -of 
Egyptian  geography. 

P.  225.  Khartoh,  in  French  would  have  the  same  sound  as 
Khartot  on  page  226. 

P.  228.  "  The  bad  road  "  would  of  course  be  impassable  at  the 
time  of  the  inundation. 

The  termination  hotep  signifies  servant.  The  name  Amon-hotep 
(servant  of  Amon)  was  called  Amunoph  by  the  Greeks,  as  Aahmes 
was  called  Amosis,  and  Seti,  Sethos  or  Sethosis. 

Semites  (descendants  of  Shem),  a  branch  of  the  human  family 
that  includes  the  Jews,  Arabs,  and  a  few  other  peoples. 

Pi  and  No  signify  a  town  or  city,  as  PL-Ramses,  No-Amon. 

TeU,  a  mound  (Arabic),  indicating  the  site  of  a  ruined  city. 

Nome  (Greek,  Nomos),  a  district. 


NOTES.  255 

Cartouche,  a  royal  escutcheon,  or  coat  of  arms,  consisting  of 
symbols  arranged  in  oval  form,  and  graven  upon  the  public  works 
erected  in  the  reign  of  the  pharaoh  for  tlie  time  being.  Sometimes 
a  jingle  oval  was  used ;  sometimes  two  or  more  (or  even  six)  were 
sculptured.  This  discovery,  made  by  Champollion,  has  been  of  the 
utmost  importance  in  determining  the  chronology  of  Egypt. 

Asebi,  Cyprus. 

Khita,  Canaan. 

Naharain,  Mesopotamia. 

The  gods  of  Egypt  were  many.     The  chief  were 

(1)  Amon  (corresponding  to  Zeus),  universally  venerated. 

(2)  Ptah,  Patah  (Former,  Creator),  worshipped  at  Memphis  for 
the  most  part. 

(3)  Osiris,  fabled  to  have  been  of  the  human  race,  afterwards 
deified,  and  become  the  Judge  of  All. 

(4)  Tsis,  the  wife  of  Osiris. 

(5)  Ilorus,  son  of  Osiris  and  Isis. 

(6)  Thnt,  scribe  of  the  gods. 

(7)  Bast  or  Pasht,  goddess  of  lust  (cat-headed),  whose  seat  was 
at  Bubastus. 

A  further  enumeration  is  unnecessary  here. 

The  Book  of  the  Dead,  referred  to  by  Dr.  Brugsch,  is  a  manual 
of  morals,  observances,  and  worship.  It  is  of  unknown  antiquity, 
but  portions  of  it  have  been  found  in  the  grave-clothes  of  persons 
who  died  before  the  building  of  the  pyramids.  Its  circulation  was 
universal  among  lettered  Egyptians,  and  a  number  of  more  or  less 
perfect  copies  are  extant. 

In  the  125th  chapter  is  described  the  appearance  of  the  soul  be- 
fore the  tribunal  of  Osiris.  Each  one  of  the  forty-two  inquisitors 
puts  a  question  to  the  individual  on  trial.  Some  questions  refer  to 
matters  of  local  importance  and  the  internal  regulations  of  the 
kingdom,  but  as  a  whole  they  embrace  the  moral  code.  We  quote 
some  of  the  declarations  : 

"  Placer  of  Spirits,  Lord  of  Truth,  is  thy  name  .  .  . 

I  have  not  privily  done  evil  against  mankind. 


256  NOTES. 

I  have  not  told  falsehoods. 
I  have  not  done  what  is  hateful  to  the  gods. 
I  have  not  murdered. 
I  have  not  smitten  men  privily. 
I  have  not  stolen. 
I  have  not  been  idle. 
I  have  not  committed  adultery. 
I  have  not  corrupted  women  or  men. 
I  have  not  polluted  myself. 
I  have  not  blasphemed  a  god. 
I  have  not  falsified  measures. 
I  have  not  cheated  in  the  weight  of  the  balance. 
I  have  given  food  to  the  hungry,  drink  to  the  thirsty,  clothes  to 
the  naked." 


INDEX. 


PAGES 

AAHME3 116,  121,  129 

Aah-hotep,  Queen,  her  jewels 122 

About,  Edmond U 

Abraham 13 

Abydus,  Table  of 44,46 

Agriculture 33 

Alphabet 10 

Amenhotep,  architect  and  sculptor 153 

Amenhotep  III 153-156 

Amenhotep  IV.    See  Khunaten. 

Ameniritis,  Queen , 192 

Amu,  the 26,61,  62 

Apopi,  King 108 

Art 11,  .36,  60, 193 

Architecture 10,  193 

Asia,  the  birthplace 22 

Assyrian  conquest 189 

Auaris 70,  96,  107 

Baal-Zephon      t  .  236 

Baba,  tomb  of 128 

Eeni  Hassan,  tombs  of CI 

Book  of  the  Dead ' 40 

Cambyses 192 

Cephrenes.    See  Kafra. 

Char,  or  Chal,  the 89,  91 

Cheops.    See  Khufu. 

Chetam.    See  Khetam. 

Commentators,  ignorance  of 204 

Darius 194 

Delta,  the 209  e^  seq. 

Egypt,  geography  of 29,  207 

Life  in 34 

Art 36,  193 

17  257 


258  INDEX. 

Egypt,  Schools 38 

Morals 40 

Oppression 41 

Chronology 42 

Assyrian  Conquest  of 189 

Persian  Conquest  of 192 

Egyptians,  their  origin 22 

Elim 241 

Ethiopia , 25,  192 

Exodus,  the 202,  203,  228,  231 

Gerrhon 214,  215 

Greeks  as  pupils 15 

Their  art  in  Egypt  . 193 

Hebrew  poetry,  prototype  of 142-146, 172 

Scriptures -     13 

Heretic  King.     See  Khunaten. 

Herodotus  on  Lake  Sirbonis 234 

Hirhor 189 

Horemhib, 165 

Hyksos,  the 93,  95,  97-100,  105,  107,  115,  125 

Israelites  in  Egypt 19 

As  Laborers 149,  226 

Dates  of 126 

Jehovah,  the  name 217 

Joseph,  place  in  chronology 126,  127,  132 

Temptation 134 

Honors 137, 219 

Josephus     95 

Kafra,  Khafra 54 

Kem,  Kemi,  Khemi 28 

Kheta,  the 27 

Khetam 69,  220,  229 

Khufu 51,  97,  98  (note) 

Khunaten 14,  159,  163 

Letter-writer,  an  Egyptian 176 

Living  One,  the 216 

Marah 241 

Mauetho     .   .  .   .' 9,42,43,95,98 

Miiriette-Bey 9, 45 

Memnon,  statues  of 154 

Memphis 47 


INDEX.  259 

Mena 10,  42,  47 

Menkaura c 54 

Menzaleh,  Lake 67,  93 

Morris,  Princess 182 

Migdol 72,222 

Mineptah  1 85,  86 

Mineptah  II 183,  185-188 

Moeris,  Lake     61 

Moses 179 

Naval  Battle  of  Aahmes 116 

Nimrod 189 

Nomes 31 

Novel,  an  Egyptian 134 

Nub,  King 66,  108,  126 

Osiris 70 

Patah-hotep,  Prince,  an  author • 56 

Penta-ur,  poem  of      172 

Pharaoh 48, 49 

The  Biblical 183 

Drowning  of  his  host , 237 

Fhoeniciau  gods , 79 

People 89,  91,  101 

Pi-Ramses.    See  Zoan. 

Pi-tom,  Pithom 68 

Poem  in  honor  of  Thutmes  III 142 

Potiphar's  wife,  story  of 134 

Prayer  of  Khunaten 14, 162 

Psaraetik  1 192 

Pyramids,  the, 51-55 

Bamses,  the  town.     5eeZoan. 

Ramses  II.  the  Great 169-172,178,  181 

Ramses  III 188 

Ra-Sekenen 109 

Red  Sea,  the 239 

Reedy  Sea,  the 233,  241 

Eutennu,  the 103,  104 

Seir 84 

Semitic  subjects  and  neighbors 64  e?  seq. 

.  Words 77 

Idols 78 

Hcckoning  of  Time 81 

Relations  with 123 

In  Canaan 140 


260  INDEX. 

Senoferu 49 

Sirbonis,  Lake, 233 

Setliroitic  nome 69 

Seti  1 168 

Shashank r   .  189 

Shasu,  the.    (See  aZso  Semitic  neighbors.) 82,97,98 

Shepherd  Kings.    See  Hyksos. 

Shur  . 240 

Sphinx  the 53 

Strabo,  his  relation 238 

Suez  Canal  of  Darius 193 

The  modern 209 

Sukot,  Succoth 68,  212 

Taa  TIT ; 121 

Tanis.     See  Zoan. 

Thebes 59 

Thutmes  III 139,  142,  150 

Tini,  Thinis 47 

Tombs,  historical  pictures  in 61, 128, 148 

Zoan,  Zoar.  Zor 65,  85,  87,  106,  124,  175,  180,  185,  223,  227 


APPENDIX. 

Table  of  Abydus 243-248 

Obelisks  of  Thutmes  III.  at  Heliopolis 248 

Passages  of  Scripture  to  which  reference  is  made 249-251 

Notes 253-256 


RETURN     CIRCULATION  DEPARTMENT 
TOi"-#^     202  Main  Library 


LOAN  PERIOD  1 
HOME  USE 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

ALL  BOOKS  MAY  BE  RECALLED  AFTER  7  DAYS 

t-month  toans  may  be  renewed  by  calfing  642-3405 

il^flL?"®  T^  u®  recharged  by  bringing  the  books  to  the  Cffculattao  0««k 

Renewats  and  recharges  may  be  made  4  days  or  lor  to  duft  dMm  ^ 

DUE  AS  STAMPED  BELOW 


RECEIVED  B^^ 


SEP  2  4  198b 


CmCULATION  DEfT. 


rvt 


IlBRABV  USE  ui 


MART^lglS 


cmcuixrioNiEI 


AUT0ttSaNMl3  «^ 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  BERKELEY 
FORM  NO.  DD6,  60m,  1/83  BERKELEY,  CA  94720 


(^s 


JLB  -^'-'^ 


!  <J 


GENERAL  LIBRARY- U.C.  BERKELEY 


BDDDa37MT^ 


d  OTi*€k  J 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


^^mt^^^M 


A  : 


y-U: 


/■     \ 


l<iHi«irr,<<ii;ly«<»yVii(»ij.|iV1i*'i*'l^ 


f 


«^ 


.^'^M 


